^ 






■ >s '^C-5 ' -"*" 



=?. ■? 



n 


^ 






' ' 


6 


cv: isf 




^1?^-1 >: 


S ^ .^ J 


< 




j3 

o 




^5 o%^" 
c- re 


'■N 




^ 




— Kl 


v> 




'■"f 




•J 



.?=, .-.■ 






a^g^;»sc£gi£»ssgogaQ?-^' 




I LIBRARY OF CONGRE 



Chap. 
SheJf(^.. 



9f 



"(i UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, if 



f^V2^i££^*a:5i£fi.^if!iZfi^*^ ^>i9^i 




(.IihIIjjvh. .S. iOrilli 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



LIFE AND CIiARACTP:R 



GoDLOvE S. Orth 

(A UEPItESENTATIVE FROM INDIANA ), 



DKI.lVERKIl IN THF. 



IKIIISR OF REPRESENTATIVES AND IN THE SENATE, 



FORTV-SEVENTIT CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION. 



PUBLISHED HY ORDEI! OF CONGRESS. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1883. 
0173 *-* 






JOINT RESOLUTION for thn printing of eei-taiu eulogies delivered in Congress upon the 

late Godlovi. S. Ortli. 

Semlred liii the Senate and Hciise «/ Iti-presenlulires of the United States of 
Jmerica in Congress assemblert, Tliat tlicro l)e i)iiiited of tlie eulogies deliv- 
ered in Congress upon the late GoDt.DVK S. Okth, a member of the Forty- 
seventh Congress from the State of Indiana, twelve thousand copies, of 
which three thousand shall he for the use of the Senate, and nine thousand 
for the use of the House of Representatives, and the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury he, and he is hereliy, directed to have printed a portrait of the said God- 
love S. Orth to accompany said eulogies; and for the purpose of engraving 
or printing said portrait the sum of five hundred dollars, or so much thereof 
as may be necessary, be, and the same is hereby, appropriated out of any 
moneys in the Treasury uot otherwise appropriated. 

Approved Feb. 24, 188:J. 
2 



ADDRESSES 

ON THE 

Death of Godlove S. Orth. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 



I\ THE House of Representatives, 

December 18, 1882. 

'Mr. Browne. It is my painful duty to annoiiiipe to tlio Hoiist- 
tlic decease of GoDi.ovE S. Oirrii, late a Hcpi-esentativc from In- 
diana, wlio died at ins iiomo in tlie city of La Fayette at lli min- 
utes past 10 o'eloek on the evening of tlie IGtli instant. Mr. 
Oirni l)ad been seven times elected a Keju'esentative to this body, 
an<l liad he lived to the end of the present session would have 
seen fourteen years of service. He held in his life-time many im- 
portant public positions in his State, and was for more than forty 
years one of the notable figures in its politics. 

In his ]irivate life he was blameless, and as a statesman able and 
conscientious in the performance of duty. He was loved by the 
constituencv he served so faithfully, and all who knew him in 
|inl)lie or in private liii' will deplore his loss. 

On some future day oi' the present session the House will be 
asked to delav for a time the routine of legislative proceedings 
that it mav pav appropriate tribute to tlie memory of the de- 
ceased. And now, Mr. Spt'aker, I mii\-e the adoption oi the i-eso- 
lutions which I sen<l to the desk. . 

The Clerk read as follows : 

h'esoliid, Tliat the House has heard with sorniw the anniiinicenient of the 
death of JIoii. fioiir.ovK S. Orth, a Repieseiitative fioiu the State of In- 
diana. 

UfsoUrd, Tliat the Cleik comnmuicate these iiroeeediiins to tlie Senate. 
Eisuh-ed, That as a token of respect to tlie memory of the deceased the 
House do now adjonrii. 

The i-esolutions wei'c unanimunsly adojitcd ; and thereupon, in 
pursuance of the last resolution, thi' House adjourned. 

3 



4 PROCEEDINGS IN THE SOUSE. 

In the House op Representatives, 

December 19, 1882. 
The Speaker annonnccd the following as the members of the 
committee oiv the ]>:irt of the House to unite ^vith a similar com- 
mittee ou the part of the Senate to constitute the funeral escort at 
the burial of the late Mr. Orth, of Indiana : 

Mr. Calkins of Indiana, Mr. Peirce of Indiana, Mr. Steele of 
Indiana, Mr. Matson of Indiana, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Mr. Urner 
of IMarvland, and Mr. Reese of Georgia. 



In the HotTSE of Representative.s, 

January 31, 1883. 

Mr. Browne. Mr. Sj)eaker, a few days ago I announced the 
death of my late colleague, Mr. (Jrth, and gave notice that at an 
early day the House woidd lie asked to suspend its business that 
the friends and associates of the deceased might pay appro|)riate 
tril)utc to his virtues as a Representative and a citizen. The time 
for these ceremonies has arrived, and I otter for consideration the 
resolutions I now send to the Clerk's desk. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Eesolvnl, That tlic lnisiiir.ss of this House lie suspemleil that siiitalili- lioiiors 
may Ik* paid the iiifiiiiiry of Hon. Godlove 8. OiiTii, late a Representative 
from Indiana. 

Kesolml. Tliat in the death of Mr. Orth the conntry has snstaiued the h)ss 
of a safe counselor, a patriotic citizen, and an able and faithful public 
servant. 

Hesolved, That as a further mark of respect for his memory the House at 
the couclusion of these ceremonies shall adjourn. 

Resolved, That the Clerk commuuicate these resolutions to the Senate. 

The resolutions were unanimously adopted. 



Address of Mr. Browne, of Indiana. 

Mr. Speaker: Deat^, says Horaw, makes no nice distinctions, 
bnt approaches all with wjnal step and knocks alike at tiie door of 
the hovel and the portals of the palace. Dnring this Congress it 
has entered this Hall, and its shadow has fallen upon O'Conncn- and 
Allen, Hawk and I.owc, Updegraff, Shackelford, and Orth, and 
hlciided their lives here with that l)righter life on the other shore. 
Death preaches an impressive sermon to tlie human soul. Tn tlie 
memoral)le words of F>urke, "It feelingly teaches us what shadows 
we are and what shadows we pursue." However short a man's 
life may be there gathers about it always something of love and 
sympathy, and when it is gone some fond hope and lirigiit ambi- 
tion perishes. No man has lived without making some impres- 
sion, for good or ill, u{)on his generation, and no one is wholly dead 
whose memory or whose example inspires the humblest to higher 
ptn-jioses or more noble resolves. The dead leave their work be- 
liind them as an example and a warning, to be judged by what has 
been accomplished, by the spirit that inspired it, and the temptations 
and dangers that environed it. 

The career of one who saw long and honorable service in this 
House is now completed. It was a life fidl of generous deeds. 
Let us, like tlie angel of the Koran, as we stand over the dead man, 
speak of the good deeds he sent before him. 

GoDLOVE S. Orth was born near Lebanon, in the State of Penn- 
sylvania, April 22, 1817. He was a descendant from a Moravian 
familv which emigrated from one of the palatinates of the old Ger- 
man Empire to the colony of Pennsylvania about the year 1725, 
under the auspices of Count Zinzendorff, the celebrated missionary. 
His grandfather, Balthazcl Orth, was an ardent patriot in the 
Revolution, acted as provost-marshal for his district, and drafted 
members of his own flimily for service in the colonial army. The 
Hessian prisoners captured at Trenton were by the orders of Wash- 



6 LIFE ASD CHARACTER OF CODLOVE S. OUTH. 

iiigtuii put into liis custody, and lie imprisoned them in tlie old 
stone church of the Moravians still standing at Lebanon. His 
ancestry lie in the adjacent church-yard, now awaiting some Old 
Mortality with his chisel to reproduce the epitaphs on their moss- 
covered tombstones. 

Mr. Okth, after securing such an education as could be obtained 
in the common schools of his native StatCj^ook an irregular course 
of instruction at the Pennsylvania College at Gettysburgh. He 
lociited there, read law in the office of Hi^n. James Cooper, and was 
admitted to the bar in ]\Iarch, 1839. The great West w:us develop- 
ing verv rapidly at this time, and to an enterprising and ambitious 
young man it was an inviting field. He was attracted by the activi- 
ties and o[)portunities of that growing section, and soon after his 
admission to the bar crossed the AUeghanies and found a home by 
the beautiful Wabitsh, at La Fayette, where he continued to reside 
until "the wheels of his weary life stood still." Here he at once 
entered upon the practice of law, and, young as he was, by liis 
learning and integrity soon won a lucrative business and a place in 
the front rank of the profession. He took an active part in the 
famous and exciting campaign of 1840, and secured at a bound a 
position of prominence in Indiana politics. 

In 1843 the Whigs of Tippecanoe County nominated him as their 
candidate for the State senate, and although the county was Demo- 
cratic he was triumphantly elected. Though one of the youngest, 
he was one of the ablest of the senate, and so well ditl he perform 
his part that before the close of the term he was chosen president 
of that body by a most complimentary vote. He thus ijecame 
actintr lieutenant-trovernor. He remained in the senate from 1843 
to 1850, and was, during a portion of this period, chairman of the 
committee on the judiciary, a j)ositiou tendered him by a Demo- 
cratic presiding officer as an evidence of the high estimate placed 
upon his integrity and learning by his political opponents. In 
1848 lie was a ctmdidate for Presidential elector on the Taylor and 
Fillmore ticket, and took an active i)art in the memorable cam- 
paign of that year. 

For ten vears subseipient to the close of his service in the State 
senate he devoted himself almost exclusively to his profession. He 



ADDRESS OF MR. liROJTNE, OF INDIANA. 7 

(lid not aiiain a]>|)r:ir in public life until the slave power revolted 
ufraiiitft iiatiuiiid authority aud prcxtlaiuied its purpose to fori'il)ly 
destroy the Union. After several of the discontented States had 
mustered for battle, when eitiior a coiuproniise or peaceful separa- 
tion or war seemed inevitable, the jicneral lussenibly of Virtjinia 
invited all the States to a peace conference to meet at Washington 
on the 4th of February, 1801. The object of this meeting, as an- 
nounced by Virginia, was to adjust, if [wssible, tiie pending struggle 
by an amendment of the Constitution giving further security to tlie 
rights of the people of the slave-holding States. Indiana promptly 
responded to this kindly invitation, aud Mr. Orth was appointed 
by Governor Morton one of its five commissioners to this peace con- 
press. His associates were Caleb B. Smith, Pleasant A. Hackle- 
man, E. W. H. Ellis, and Thoma.s C. Slaught^-r — -names now canon- 
ized in the hearts of our people. Not one of these men is now 
living, all of them having died before Mr. OiiTH. One who re- 
views to-day the proceedings of that notable conference will be 
surprised at the shortness of the roll of its survivors. Tyler aud 
Fessenden, Morrell aud Reverdy Johnson, Chase and Wadsworth, 
and almost all the distinguished men who met iu that extraordinary 
assembly have passed away. 

Mr. Orth was more a listener than a talker or an actor in that 
congress. He soon became convinced that an honorable adjustment 
was hopeless ; that the malcontents who inaugurated the rebellion 
would accept but separation or terms that would bind for all time 
the free States to the juggernaut of the slave-masters. To such 
conditions he knew his people would never sulmiit. He believed, 
moreover, that the Consiitntion as it was, cori'cetly interpreted and 
honestly enforced, gave ample protection to the institutions of the 
South. Although anti-slavery in his sympathies and sternly op- 
posed to what he l^elieved to be the encroachments of slavery, he 
stood for the enforcement of law, and was one of those who, if the 
law dcmaniled it, "would liave given Shylock a verdict for the 
pound of flesh although he had to take it from his own bosom." 

"When the peace congress adjourned Mr. Orth was convinced 
that \\ar could not long be averted, aud upon his return home he 



8 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GODLOVE S. ORTH. 

acklmsscd liis jienple uii tlie situatiuii, to recast iug with remarkable 
accuracy tlic futiire of tlie country. He jiointed out to tliem the 
ininiiuciice of the danger confronting them and exhorted them to 
meet it with a courage that neitlier sacrifice nor .suffering could 
subdue or dishearten. 

The war opened, and from its beginning he championed the cause 
of the nation with all the zeal and enthusiasm of his nature. In 
every phase of that fearful conflict — in victory, in defeat — he gave 
the Union his active support, and from tlie first gun at Charleston 
Harbor until the surrender at Appomattox he insisted that a vigor- 
ous and aggre-sivc war policy was the price of peace and union. 

Mr.ORTJi had butabriefexperieuceinthemilitaryservice. When 
in the summer of 1862 Indiana was threatened with an invasion on 
its southern borders lie responded to the call of the governor, and 
putting himself at the head of a company of his fellow-citizens re- 
ported for duty. He was sent to the Ohio River and put in com- 
mand of the ram Hornet. He continued on duty until the emer- 
gency that called him into the service was over when he returned 
to his civil jiursuits. 

He was elected a Representative in Congress in October, 1S62, 
and first took his seat here on the 4th of March followina:. He 

o 

was returned by his district to the Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, Forty- 
first, by the State at large to the Forty-third, and again by his dis- 
trict to the Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Congresses, having at 
the time of his death seen fourteen years of service as the trusted 
representative of a most intelligent constituency. No man could 
command the confidence of such a constitucncv and hold it lono- 
and unwaveringly without possessing real merit. 

His services here began in the most eventful epoch in our his- 
tory. The Republic was in the agonies of a most cruel civil war. 
Its expenses were enormous, and the generosity of its expenditure 
of money was only paralleled by the profligacy with which a heroic 
soldiery poured out their blood. Taxation seemed to have reached 
its uttermost limit, and yet our revenues fell far below the demands 
of the times. 

The Treasury was empty, our fiuauces in disorder, but the war 



ADVBESS Of MR.BllOWNE, OF INDI.iyj. 9 

went nil, iiK'i'fasiiig in inaiiiiituilr and intcnsifviiiji in liittcrncss, 
nntil till' codk'st and wisest dared not predict its duration, its results 
to (lur eivilization cir our deinocratie system of <>'overnmpnt. Tiie 
friends of the Union were divided in their eonneils, and some began 
to lose hope of success. Gloom overshadowed every housi'liold. 
There was sadness and sorrow about every heartli-stone. " Every 
shore had its tale of blood and its record of snttering." 

The dead lav on every hillside and in every valley, by the waters 
of the Ohio and under the shade of the magnolia and the cedar of 
the South. The roar of hostile guns mingled with the moans of the 
dving and the agonizing sobs of bereaved sisters and mothers. It 
was under such sad surroundings Mr. Orth assumed the duties of 
• Representative. That he conscientiously and fearlessly did the 
work assiffued him is a part of the record of tliose troublous times. 

After the war lie liad to grapple the new and perplexing ques- 
tions of reconstruction, and here, too, he pi-oved himself ecpial to 
esich occasion, ne\'er forgetting the cause of freedom and ever hav- 
ing an eye to the glory of his country. 

He served on several of the most important committees of the 
House, and among tliem the Committee on Freedmen, the Commit- 
tee on Private Land Claims, the Committee on Ways and Means, 
the Committee on Reform in the Civil Service, and the Committee 
on Foreign Affairs. He brought to the discharge of his commit- 
tee work an intelligent industry which won for him the respect and 
oonfidenceof his iissociates and a position of influentr in the House. 
Wliile on the Frecdmen's Committee he matureil and reported sev- 
eral measures for the protection of tliat large and friendless nudti- 
tude wliieh the war was daily transforming from ciiattels into men. 
As a member of tlie Committee oii Foreign Affairs he was, wiien 
that question was before the country, op])osed to according belliger- 
ent rights to Cuba, and on behalf of a minority of the committee 
presented a report embodying his views, whidi was sustained t)y 
the House and indorsed by the country. 

During the discussion which folhjwed he said : 

I yield to uo gentleman on the floor of this House in expressions of sympa- 
thy for auy jieople who, suffering from^ojjpression, are lightiug for independ- 
ence. It is an American sentiment that all men should be free. These geuer- 



10 LIFE AND CHABACIEB OF GODLOVF S. ORTH. 

(Ills iriipiilses ;iie part of oiir nature ; tliey are among tlie earliest iiiii)re»sion8 
of oiir cliiliUiooiI ; we receive tbem in lineal descent from our Revolutionary 
ancestors; they arc the proud heritage of every American. But jiersonal 
sympathy must not Ite permitted to influence official action in derogation of 
the just rights of others. If my sympathy could give the Cuhans independ- 
ence and separate nationality they sliould have it before the going down of 
the sun. But, sir, when I am asked to entangle the Government in a contro- 
versy in which we have everything to lose and nothing to gain, I cannot do 
it, I dai'e not do it, .and I have the fullest coutidence that this House will not 
do it. 

Mr. ( )i!TH advocatt'd every advance moveiueiit of liis party. 
Fie was in the fullest synipatliy with tlie etnaneipatioii policy of 
Lincoln and recorded his votef ir the aniendnient alxilishino- slavery. 
He also zealously supporte*.! the Fourteenth Ainendnient and followed 
these measures to their logical conclusion by aiding to put the bal- 
lot into the hands of the newly made freeman. On the subject of 
human rights his views were radical. He hated oppression and 
was intolerant of what he regarded caste legislation. He combated 
the anti-f 'hinese legislation of this Congress because he thought it 
an attack on liberty. 

Among his last speeches in this House was an earnest and elo- 
(pient protest against this measure. He said: 

The proiiosed legislation is l>ased on race and color, is in derogation of jus- 
tice and right, sulivirts the time-honored traditions of the fathers, tramples 
alike upon treaties and statutes, strikes at the fundamental principles of re- 
jiulplicanism, anil seeks to rob our nation of the brightest jewels in its coronet 
of glory. 

From the lamling at Plymouth Rock, from the settlement at .Jamestown, 
down through all our varied history, our jieople have placed themselves on 
Goil's word and announced their belief that He had " made of one blood all 
nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth." This is the foundation- 
stone ujiou wliieb our people have erected the grandest structure of human 
government known to man's history. 

The tirst piditical document )>romulgated by the feel>le Colonies in vindi- 
cation of their action formulated this faith into the declaration that "all 
men are create<l eiiual," endowed with certain inalienable rights, auu)ng 
which is ''the pursuit of happiness," and from which followed as an inevi- 
table corollary the doctrine of expatriation, which is the right of man to go 
wheresoever his tastes, his judgment, or his interest might lead him. 



ADDRESS OF ME. BROWNE, OF INDIANA. 11 

Upnii this old gospel of iilRTty ami cciiiality he placed liiiii-clf 
at tiic iK'fi lining of Ids political life and lie adiicredto it in ids last 
utterances. He wrote in his creed tlic philosopliy of Hugo: 

Liliirty 1 Eiiiuility ! Fiaternity ! There is iiothiii);; to add— uothins to le- 
tieurli. They are the three steps of the supreme ladder. Liberty is right ; 
ecluality is fact : fraternity is duty. All the man is tliere. 

Upon the adjournment of the Forty-tldrd Congress J'lesident 
Grant tendered liiin the position of United States minister to Vi- 
enna, wliieii he accei)ted. While abroad he was cho.scu by the al- 
most unanimous voice of the Rej>ublican party its candidate for 
governor of Indiana. He resigned liis mission in compliance with 
the retjuest of his friends to make the race for tkit office. During 
the canvass he withdrew from the ticket because of local opposition 
to his candidacy whicli he was induced to believe would imperil the 
suwe.ss of his party. His long term of service, his party |iroiiii- 
nenee, his aggressive character, his nncompR>inising devotion to 
principle, and his firm adherence to his convictions made him a 
conspicuous mark for his enemies. Eminence in any walk in life, 
and especially in politics, invites criticism and censure. He lives 
to little purjiose who is without foes. It is nnfjrtnnate that in our 
political warfare we are a]it to justify the assassination of private 
cliaracter if it pnnnotes partisan success. If party ends riMpiire it 
we too often remorselesslv murder a good man's name. But the 
fame iif him of whom I speak is safe from di'tiiiiiation now. He 
is beyond the reach of reproach. Aftera thinlut a century of pub- 
lic life, after ample opportunities for amassing wealth, Mr. ( )rth 
died comparatively poor. If he had faults, venality w;is not one 
of them. His frugal, temperate, and unostentatious habits, his dis- 
regard of wealth, vindicate his character from such an iin]intatioii 
and rcliuke those who calumniated it. 

It was mv irood fortune to know Mr. ()i:th somcwiiat intimatelv 
for a score of years. He was of a sunny nature, and had a cheer- 
ful woril, a genial smile, and a hearty greeting for all. Xo man 
ever had friends more devoted and self-sacriticing than he. 1 le liatl 
a jiersoiial magnetism whicli attracted men and held tiiem. Tiiey 
stood l)y him in every vicissitude of his tbrtune. Xo assault upon 



12 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GODLOVE S. ORTH. 

his record or his iioiuir weakened their tiiitli or caused tliein to fal- 
ter in their friendship. It was thought tiiat at times lie was unduly 
sensitive and too quick to suspect offense; hut if this was a weak- 
ness it arose from " tiiat chastity of honor that felt a stain as a 
wound." No life is wholly fiiultless ; liis iiad its frailties; but 
when the account of its deeds here is made up there will be found 
a large l)alance on the heavenward side. He was self-reliant, and 
prosei'uted his work with an energy that deserved .success if it <lid 
not always achieve it. As a thinker and a speaker he was aggress- 
ive but tolerant ; urging his point with the zeal of an enthusiast, 
he freely accorded lionesty of purpose and conviction to tliose who 
combated his opinions. His language was simple, his manner earn- 
est, his illustrations well chosen. There was no attempt at dis- 
play — IK) straining after effect. He sometimes festooned his thought 
with an apt quotation and gave point to his logic by an appropri- 
ate anecdote. A man of convictions and integrity of purpose, be- 
fore forming an opinion he examined the facts and only accepted 
conclusions after trying the foundations upon which they were made 
to resst. 

But I cannot further trace his personal or S(x-ial traits, or his pub- 
lic career. Imperfect as my sketch lias been, I must leave it, know- 
ing that all my omissions will l)e sup]>lic<l by others. 

Mr. Orth was in declining health for some time before his death. 
At the close of the last session of this Congress he visited Berkeley 
Springs, hoping by rest and recreation to regain his wasted strength 
and be ready for the labors of this session. He did not find the 
relief he sought, but returned home an invalid. Notwithstanding 
his fccl)lc and broken condition, his party friends again tendered 
him the Congressional nomination. He accepted the race and at- 
tempted to make a canvass, but disease had so impaired his health 
that he was unal)le to address the people, and he did little more 
than appear at a few of the ijolitical meetings iield in iiis district. 
I saw him for the last time at the close of the campaign. It was 
apparent then that the end was near. Within a few months dis- 
ease had made sad inroads upon the vigor of both his body and 
mind. He was making a manful struggle to rally his decaying 



ADDRESS OF MR. WILSON, OF WEST TIRaiNIA. 13 

energies, but the brightness of his life was fading away and tiie 
gloom of the evening fast gathering about him. Within a brief 
month, at his old home, with friends and family about him, death 
closed the scene, tender hands bore his remains to the church-yard 
and laid them forever away. He sleeps now all regardless of life's 
struggles or its storms. 

While his countrymen linf^er around his grave their aspirations will ascend 
to Heaven that a kind Providence may grant our beloved country many more 
such men. 

These are his words spoken at the bier of Thaddeus Stevens. I 
repeat them, and here by his new-made grave express the hope that 
the future of our free and prosperous Republic may be blesse<l witii 
many such men as Godlove S. Orth. Now — 

Let us breathe a prayer above his sod 
And leave him to his rest — and God. 



Address of Mr. WlLSON, of West Virginia. 

Mr. SrK.\KER: We have all been siiocked and pained at the 
mortalitv among members of the two branches of Congress. Dur- 
ing the present session seven members of this House have been 
swept away by the fell destroyer. 

And on yesterday I was informed by tlic Lil)rarian of Congress 
that since the 4th day of March, 1871, of those who were then 
members of either one or the other branch, or who had been since 
that time, twenty-two Senators have died, and sixty-nine members 
of this House have been called to lie down in the cold, damp grave, 
apart from earth, to sleep that sleep that knows no waking. How 
foK^ibly we are impressed with the words of Watts: 

Princes, this clay must be your bed, 

In spite of all your towers; 
The tall, the wise, the reverend head 

Must lie as low as ours. 

I desire, Mr. Speaker, with the preparation of only a few hours, 
as a colleague on the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the lamented 



14 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GODLOVE S. ORTB. 

GoDLovE S. Orth, to submit a few remarks on lii.s life and t-iiar- 
acter. 

On tlie 16th of December last lie (lei)arted this life and wound 
up a long, eventful, and honoi-able career. We now pause foi- a 
time to do honor to his memory. In your time, Mr. Speaker, and 
in mine, tijw meu have filled so many positions of prominence an<l 
tiust as he whom we now mourn. I can not better recount the 
])ul)lic services rendered by him to this country than by reading 
from the C'ongressional Directory a statement which was published 
during his life and presumably by his consent : 

Gom.ovK S. Okth, of La Fayette, was lioni near LpbanoD, Pennsylvania, 
April a-2, 1S17 ; was (Mlncated at Gettysburgli College, Pennsylvania; studied 
law and conniienced to practice in Indiana; wasa nienilierof the State senate 
of Indi:ina in 1S43, '44, M.'i, '46, '47, and '4s, .serving one year as president of 
tliat body : was a Presidential elector in 1848: was a nienilicr of tlie jieace 
conferenee in 18til ; served as captain of a company of volnnleers during tUe 
war for tlie sn))pressioii of the rebellion ; was elected to the Thirty-eighth, 
Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, Forty-first, and Forty-third Congresses; upon the 
adjournnient of the Forty-third Congress he was api)ointed United States 
niiuister to Vienna; and was elected to the Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh 
Congiesses. 

He o-ave to his -State six years' service in its senate; and if he 
had lived t<> tlie 4th of ^Farch next, he would have served fourteen 
years in tiiis Ibiiise. He also served in the peace congress of l.SGl 
and in tiie volunteer military service uf the late war; and for sev- 
eral years he represented his Government as minister to Yieinui. 

I submit, Mr. Speaker, that no man could have lieen so often 
honored. and retained for so many years in higii positions, winv did 
not possess noble qualities of head and heart. His associates and 
acquaintances on this floor will, T am sure, gladly unite with me in 
testifyino- to his ability and to his warm-hearted, genial, and gen- 
erous nature. 

I liave said that he was a man of ability. His long-contiinietl 
public service in various positions, tiie duties of which he discharged 
with liniiorto himself and benefit to liis country, marked him as a 
man of abilitv. His career at the l)ar, even in his youth, was a 
brilMant and asntvessfnl one. I need not remind mendiers around 
me of the high rank he took liere with us ; of the various eiiair- 



ADDRESS OF MR. WILSON, OF ITEST riRGINIA. 15 

mansliips of important committees that he filled from time to time ; 
the various important eomraittee reports which lie prepared and 
presented ; of the various able speeches he made during his mem- 
bership here. In addition to all this, Mr. Speaker, be it suid tliat 
GoDLOVK S. Orth lived and died an honest man. But once dur- 
ing his eventful career, extending as it did over a period of nearly 
Ibrtv vears, arc we told by tliose who knew him longest and best, 
was his character ever assailed or his integrity impeached. 

Tn the vears 187(5 Indiana was regarded as politically a doubt- 
ful State. It was regarded as an important factor, if not the de- 
ciding factor, in the Presidential election of that year. Each of 
the great political ])urtics was organizing for the campaign. Each 
aimed to put forward its strongest and most available man as a 
candidate for governor. The Democratic party nominated as 
its candidate the lamented James D. Vrilliams, once a |)roniineut 
and ])opular member of this House; and tiie Ivcjiubiican party, 
passing by its scores of distinguished men, nominated ( iiiiu.oxK S. 
Orth, and recalled him from his foreign mission. Scarcely iiad 
he returned to his home, having resigned liis position abroad, when 
rinnor, oftentimes a lying jade, cast suspicion upon him, and a.s- 
.sertcd that he had fallen from duty's path and violated tiie rules of 
propriety bv accepting a fee to prosecute certain claims — at a time, 
too, when he was a mendter of Congress and when those claims 
were undergoing investigation by Congress. A due regard for his 
niemorv promi)ts me now and here to say, in view of all the lights 
upon that subject, that this rumor was without foundation. It 
took the wings of the wind and Hew to all parts of the coiiutry ; 
and notwithstanding the fact that no witness, tlicn or since, has ever 
been found to verify it and no record ever pniduced to sustain it, 
the only course left for Mr. Orth to pursue in the political frenzy 
of the hour was to retire from the contest, to wait and watch and 
bide his time for vindication. He returned to his home and retired 
to private life; he returned to tlie ])eople by whom he had often 
been honored, to the people who had passed in review the deeds of 
his life — the people who had watched him from l)oyhood to the 
time when the white flakes of age settled upon his brow — he re- 



16 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GODLOVE S. OKTB. 

turned to the people in wliose breast thei-e was a deep-seated convic- 
tion tliat GoDLovE S. Orth was an honest man. They believed 
he had been wantonly pursued and persecuted. T1k'\- remembered 
the fidelity with which he so long and so ably served them and 
served his country in various ])rominent positions. They remem- 
bered the dark hours of 1861, when the country was filled and 
startled witli rumors of war, and how he exerted himself throuoh 
the medium of the peace congress of that year to avert the hor- 
rors of war. 

Failing in that effort he returned to his home, headed a military 
company in the volunteer service, and went forth to figlit for his 
country, her liberty, and her laws. Their admiration for the man 
and confidence in his integrity and his innocence inspired them with 
a determination to set him right before the world. This thevdiil bv 
electing him to the Forty-sixth Congress and re-electing him by a 
largely increased majority to the Forty-seventh Congress. Thus, 
Mr. Speaker, was his brow during his life wreathed with vindica- 
tion and victory. Of the accusation against iiim and the manner 
in whicli his constituents repudiated and crushed it out, it may be 
well said — 

Truth crii.shed to earth shall rise agaiu ; 

The eternal years of God are hers; 

But Error, wouiuled, writhes with pain, 

And dies among bis worshipers. 

His life on earth is ended. His friends and country are left to 
mourn his loss. But though death has deprived them of his serv- 
ices, it has not taken away tiie result of his labor. Life leaves the 
body, and the body is borne to the ground frem which it sj)rang. 
Fruits fall to the earth and decay, but never a fruit that did not 
leave its seed, and never a life that did not leave its example. The 
sun of man's life goes down, but the star of his example remains 
fixed in the firmament. 

Mr. Orth's career is ended, and his friends point witli ])ride to 
his record, the record of a scholar, a statesman, and a jiatriot. 

Oh God ! It is a fearful thing 
To see the hnnian soul take wing, 
In any shape, in any mood. 



ADDRESS OF MR. CALKINS, OF INDIANA. 17 



Address of Mr. Calkins, of Indiana. 

Mr. Speaker: In the few remarks I am about to submit upon 
the life and character of my dead colleague I shall omit any ex- 
tended reference to his public career, which has been so fitly epito- 
mized by my colleague [Mr. Browne]. At the time of his death 
there were few men better known in the State of Indiana than Mr. 
Orth. He began his public career quite young, and passed with 
amazing rapidity through many grades of political life. He never 
attained the full measure of his ambition ; but his aspirations were not 
higher than his merit deserved. That he did not entirely succeed 
is not a fault, for he was always willing to make personal sacrifices 
that the principles for which he struggled might obtain. He was 
personally popular, and held his friendships with a firm grasp. 
His public speeches were earnest and sincere and his manner unos- 
tentatious and attractive. His language was fluent and well 
chosen, and his zeal was fervid and impressive. He was bold in 
expression, plausible in argument, and pathetic in appeal. He 
never apologized for public action, nor took refuge in silence from 
public assault. He never placated an enemy at the expense of a 
friend, nor did he resort to doubtful expediencies at the sacrifice of 
principle. 

The basis of his political action was that of absolute justice, and 
his motto was "that it were better to fail in the right than to suc- 
ceed in the wrong." Politically he was a thorough disciplinarian, 
and his remarkable success in that field was largely attributable to 
the solid phalanxes- of his personal following. 

He had enemies in his own political party, as all men of decided 
views and large individuality must have, but he possessed the skill 
of maintaining them in line without driving them from the party 
of their choice. He maintained his party leadership in his own 
Congressional district for a quarter of a century, and when he died 
was serving his seventh term in this House. 

He did not escape harsh criticism; but he lived to place his tri- 
umphant vindication in the permanent records of his country which 
he served so long and faithfully. 
0173 2 



18 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GODLOVE S. ORTH. 

As a citizen he had the respect of those who knew him best, 
without regard to party affiliations. As a neighbor he was oblig- 
ing, and as a friend he was firm and true. 

His rank as a lawyer when he left the bar to enter politics was 
fully up to the standard of the best lawyers of the State. He was 
generous and charitable, and gave for the love of giving and not 
for the love of praise. He was gentle in disposition, and anxious 
to add to the " sum of human joy." He did good deetls from 
choice and not for personal advantage. He had a kind word for 
all, and was best pleased when making others happy. He had 
strong religious convictions, but they were not hampered by nar- 
row constructions or uncharitable dogmatisms. The best trait of 
his character was found in his domestic relations ; he was a loving 
husband and a kind, indulgent father. 

HLs public career was remarkable, and fitly illustrates many of 
the rare qualities which he possessed. While in health he never 
was defeated for a popular office at the hands of the people. 
When first a State senator he was one of its youngest members 
and was chosen presiding officer. In this field he first won his 
reputation as a skillful parliamentarian, and often on the floor 
provetl himself a quick and ready debater. 

He was appointed one of the peace commission in 1861. He 
performed the delicate and arduous duties of that place with sig- 
nal ability. His heroic devotion to the doctrine of an inseparable 
union of these United States, without further compromises, did 
much to secure the line of jwlicy which the Administration after- 
ward adopted. He was in thorough sympathy with Governor 
Morton in tiie arming and equipping of troops, and supported the 
vigorous prosecution of the war for the suppression of the rebell- 
ion. He never doubted the righteousness of the Union cause, nor 
despaired of final victory for our arras. He was not disheartened 
at reverses, nor did he flag in his zeal for the Union in the darkest 
hour of the rebellion. 

He gave to his country his services as a volunteer and risked his 
life for its preservation. His services in this House during the 
war were one continued line of devotion to his country, and all 



& 



ADDRESS OF MB. CALKINS, OF INDIANA. \ 9 

his public acts bespoke liis sympathy and love for the volunteer 
solflier. 

His long service in this House bears testimony to his ability as 
a statesman. He d'ul not often speak in debate, but when lie did 
he commanded attention from his fellow members. He distin- 
suished himself while at the head of the Committee on Foreim 
Affairs ; he familiarized himself with our foreign policy, and 
was the author of a bill to perfect our consular and diplomatic 
system. He mastered the details of this department and was rec- 
ognized authority on all questions aflPecting it. He was thoroughly 
American in sentiment, and was imbued with the idea of the 
equality of all civilized people before the law. He despised caste 
and took no pleasure in the shallow pretenses of foreign courts ; 
and when he represented our country at the court of Vienna he 
was ambitious to represent the model Republic in the simplicity of 
pure democracy, without being oifensive. All who knew him in 
that position will bear testimony to his signal triumph. 

While at the head of the Committee on Foreign Affairs he be- 
came possessed of manj^ of the secrets of the unwritten history of 
this country which happened during that time. His version of 
the acquisition of the Territory of Alaska by this country was new 
and interesting. I am not able to recite it with sufficient accuracy 
to venture to aive it here. I have no doubt that when the history 
of the lives of Mr. Seward and Mr. Sumner are rewritten in all 
their details the purchase of Alaska by this country will not be an 
uninteresting chapter, especially if the true reason is given as un- 
derstood by ]\Ir. Orth. I regret that the occasion did not arise 
while Mr. Orth was living which would have given him tiie op- 
portunity to state his version of this matter. 

Mr. Orth was my friend. I have known him from my child- 
hood. From his lips I have received many words of encourage- 
ment. He was in full sympathy with the men who labor and toil. 
He began life himself in poverty, and kne^y \\hat it was to suc- 
ceed in spite of it. He appreciated the burdens which honest toil 
demands, and rejoiced at the success which triumphed over it. He 
was a lover of liberty, a friend of the oppressed, and an advocate 
of universal freedom. 



20 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GODLOVE S. ORTH. 

His last sickness was painful ; but he bore the tedious approach 
of death with patience and resignation. He looked death in the 
face without a shudder and calmly awaited its triumph. When 
the cold waters were gathering about him and the power of speech 
was fading away he clasped the hands of those dear to him and 
whispered, " Happy." Thus peacefully he passed away ; and he 
is as far from us to-day as the patriarclis and those who " perished 
before the flood." 

As one of the members of the committee of this House I at- 
tended his funeral at his home in La Fayette, Indiana. The day 
was inclement, but this did not deter a multitude of people from 
his own neighborhood as well as from all the principal points in 
his old Congressional district, and delegations from different parts 
of the State, from paying their last tribute of respect to his mem- 
ory. All that is mortal of our dead colleague lies in the beauti- 
ful cemetery adjoining the city where he lived so long and whose 
people he loved so well. The verdure of spring will decorate his 
grave. Loving hands will strew flowers there. These will fade 
and wither, but the monuments he has erected by his public acts 
will survive forever. 



Address of Mr. ROBINSON, of New York. 

Mr. Speaker : Again the dusky wing of death darkens the 
doors of this House. Another distinguished soldier ha.s fallen in 
life's battle. To-day a nation pauses to pay respect to the funeral 
procession. As it passes I bow my head in reverence and join 
the weeping throng in tlie mournful miserere for the dead. 

I have not risen to deliver a eulogy on the deceased statesman, 
nor shall I attempt to sketch the honorable steps by which he as- 
cended to fame. That has been and will be done more appropri- 
ately and thoroughly by his colleagues and friends in this House 
and in the Senate. I have risen simply to say a word or two that 
may appropriately come from me in the general sorrow for his 
untimely death. 

Mr. Orth aud I first met in the Fortieth Congress, which a&- 



ADDRESS OF MR. ROBINSOX, OF NEW YORK. 21 

sembled here in its first session on the 4th of March, 1867. He 
had long filled a distinguished position in his adopted State, as he 
afterward filled places of trust and honor in national affairs, both 
at home and aijroail. 

He had been a member of the Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth 
Congresses, and at the commencement of his Congressional career, 
just twenty years ago, he was appointed a member of the Commit- 
tee on Foreign Affairs, a position which he still occupied at the 
time of his death. He and I served together on that committee 
in the Fortieth Congress, and on the great questions so thoroughly 
dis(!ussed and so satisfactorily settled in and by that Congress his 
views and mine were entirely harmonious. Those who desire to 
see the rights of American citizens traveling abroad warmly and 
vigorouslv vindicated in an enlarged and Amei'ican view have 
only to refer to his speeches during that Congress. How few of 
the members of tiiis House in that Fortieth Congress do we now 
find on this floor ! Only eleven. A dozen have been transferred 
to the Senate ; one became President, another Vice-President ; 
several have become governors of their several States ; others in 
the Cabinet and in foreign service ; and oh, how many have 
passed to the shadowy shore whose mists form an impenetrable 
veil to the human eye ! 

At the last session of this Congress he was one of those who de- 
livered eulogies on the deceased Senator Carpenter of Wisconsin, 
and I remember the solemn tones of his voice as he repeated the 
graphic sentence of Edmund Burke on a similar occasion, and so 
soon to be applied to himsejf : 

What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue ! 

It so happened that in the discussion of questions coming before 
this House during the last session Mr. Outh and I had sonie dif- 
ferences approaching personalities, and had it not been tor his for- 
giving nature, superior in that respect to mine, they might have 
permanently estranged us from each other. Had it even been so 
that we had separated at the close of the last session in anger, I 
think I should still have claimed the privilege which I now im- 
j)lore of uniting with iiis friends and admirers in paying this 



o 



22 t^tFE AND CHARACTER OF GODLOVE S. ORTH. 

justly deserved tribute to liis memory. But that generous nature 
which governed all his actions did not allow me to separate from 
him with iiostile feelings. 

At a public meeting held in this city, composed of those who 
deeply sympathized witii rae in my course in this House and who 
thought that he and I did not differ so widely in sentiment upon 
the subject which we discussed with such apparent warmth, he 
preceded me in some remarks in whicii, though we had not* for 
some days spokeu to each otiier, he referred to me so kindly, and, 
on concluding his speech, so cordially tendered me his haud that 
we forgot our differences and were afterward warmer friends than 

ever. 

We parted for our several homes, hoping to meet again in the 
present session to indidge in our renewed intercourse of friend- 
ship. I hoped again to grasp his generous hand, the parting 
pressure of which I still feel, warm with the pulsations of his 
noble heart. Alas ! that hand is cold in the icy grasp of death 
and the pulses of tliat kindly heart have ceased to throli forever. 
I see in his saddened iiouse a mournful family group — a bereaved 
wife and weeping children — and I mingle my tears of sympatiiy 
and sorrow with theirs in the darkened circle of their distant 
home. 



Address of Mr. HoLMAN, of Indiana. 

Mr. Speaker : It has been the custom of the two Houses of 
Congress from the foundation of the Government whenever death 
has closed the career of one of its number, to suspend for the time 
the course of legislation, consider his public record, and pay a trib- 
ute to his memory — a custom not only beautifnl in the expression 
of humane and kindly sympathy, but an instinctive admonition to 
the living. 

The public career of Godlove S. Orth, who so recently moved 
in our midst eager in the affairs of government, was one of more 
than ordinary duration and embraced the most important epoch of 
the great State in which most of his life was passed. Nearly forty 



ADDRESS OF MR. HOLMAN, OF INDIAXJ. 23 

years ago Mr. Orth entered the legislature of Indiana as a sena- 
tor at an age when he was barely eligible to the trust. Indiana was 
then almost a frontier State. The restless tide of emigration, it is 
true, had invaded with intrepid steps the pathless forests and prai- 
ries stretching fiir westward from the Wabash, but the early settle- 
ments of Indiana (except the old post of Vincennes) were on her 
southern and southeastern borders and moved slowly and painfully 
northward and northwestwardly through interminable and unbroken 
forests. 

When ]\tr. Orth, buoyant with youth and iiope, fixed his home 
on the Wabash, the population of Indiana, from the Ohio to the 
lake, was but little more than half a million. The last of the In- 
dian tribes which for centuries had roamed the unshorn fields from 
the Miami to the Wabash had but recently cast their last glance 
on the graves of the fathers and sadly turned their faces to the 
West. The wealth of the State was a self-reliant people, fertile 
lands, the fruits of the earth, and flocks and herds; the pioneer's 
cabin, whose master was more independent and more iiospitable 
than a king, was still the landmark of ever)- landscape; the scat- 
tered settlers on the lands, and even in towns and villages, each the 
independent owner of a freehold, gloried in their equal condition, 
even in material wealtii. Such were the people who, pleased with 
his sturdy and manly bearing, chose young Orth to represent 
them in their senate. 

In those days there was little accumulated wealth in Indiana; 
the whole people were employed in agricultural pursuits. Yet 
with the eagerness of young and vigorous communities for rapid 
development the State had already incurred a debt, the burden of 
which very greatly exceeded her available resources or the tax-pay- 
ing ability of her people, to advance a system of internal improve- 
ments, resulting in inevitable failure. This premature enterprise 
terminated in a great debt with no compensating result. It wa-s 
prematue, for argriculture, the natural employment of a free people 
and of all pursuits the most ennobling, diffuses and equalizes wealth, 
promising slow but solid advancement, while the artificial agencies 
which centralize wealth develop resources with accelerated force. 
These agencies were as yet undeveloped in Indiana. 



24 LIFE AND CBARACTER OF GODLOVE S. ORTH. 

The people were eager to maintain the public credit, but the 
treasury was exhausted, and temporary expedients only resulted in 
the hopeless disorder of the finances of the State and the discontent 
and despondency of the ijcople. At this time Mr. Oeth entered 
the senate of Indiana. He co-operated earnestly and effectually 
with older members of the house and senate, with Penningt(.)n and 
his associates, gentlemen of long experience (for it had been the 
policy of the people to keep their most trusted public servants long 
in their employment). Gradually the State arose from her de- 
spondency, and before Mr. Orth left the senate the public debt had 
been honorably adjusted, its payment assured without oppression 
to the people, measures provided which were destined to place In- 
diana in the front rank of States in the endowment and excellency 
of her system of common schools — the true university of the state — 
and the forces inaugurated which have placed Indiana in her now 
commanding station in the Union. Mr. Orth was identified with 
all the great measures of that important period and bore an honor- 
able part in their success. 

ISIr. Orth was a Whig ; he was essentially and constitutionally 
a Whig, an admirer of Hamilton, a disciple of Henry Clay. He 
was a Whig in the sense in which that term and that of Democracy 
most clearly express the two theories of Government, which have 
struggled in all the past and will" in the future for mastery in this 
Republic. In the later years of the Whig party Indiana furnished 
many of its ablest and most devoted leaders. While ]\Ir. Orth 
was not at any time the recognized leader of the Whig party of the 
State, he stood firmly in its front rank. He was the co-worker, 
associate, and friend of the great Whigs of Indiana from the time 
he entered the senate until that party was merged for the time on 
the great incidental issue of slavery in the Republican party. The 
Whig party of Indiana, in its representative men, was never so 
great as in the years of its decline. During this period Nicholas 
McCarty, Oliver H. Smith, Albert S. White, Joseph G. Marshall, 
George H. Dunn, Pleasant A. Hacklemau, James Rariden, John 
A. Matson, Henry S. Lane, George G. Dunn, Samuel W. Parker, 
David Wallace, John 1). Defrees, and Sauuiel Bigger, the last of 
the Whig governors of the State, were the Whig leaders of In- 



ADDRESS OF ME. EOLMAN, OF INDIANA. 25 

diana. All these were tlie associates and co-workers of Godlove 
S. Orth ; most of them men of national reputations; two of them, 
the foremost of them all, never in public employment, and one of 
them almost the peer of Henry Clay in the brilliancy of his elo- 
quence. I mentiini only the great Whig leaders of Indiana, asso- 
ciates and friends of IMr. Ohth, who are now no more. A few 
equally eminent still survive. All of them became members of the 
Republican party. No period of the State and no party in the 
State has produced men more eminent for their virtues than the 
Whig leaders I have named. 

Mr. Orth was a staunch partisan and true to his political 
friends. While iu no sense an anti-slavery leader, he did not hesi- 
tate to co-operate with the body of his political associates in the 
movements which ultimately formed the Republican party, and he 
became one of its founders; was one of its truest and most trusted 
leaders from its organization to the time of his death, and repre- 
sented his district as a Republican in this Chamber for seven terms, 
the longest period, with two exceptions, in the history of the State. 
He entered Congress during the war, and, fully impressed with the 
belief that the abolition of slavery w as indispensable to the public 
safety, he supported earnestly the amendments to the Constitution 
and all the measures looking to the elevation of the frcedman. 

As a member of this House, Mr. Orth, while not active in the 
current business, was attentive, careful, and prudent, generally, and 
on party questions always, co-operating with the body of his polit- 
ical friends. While not at any time the leader of his party in the 
House, he was at all times one of its representative men and influ- 
ential in its counsels. In debate his commanding and dignified 
presence, deep and pleasant voice, and earnestness of manner ar- 
rested attention. His style, if not brilliant or impassioned, was 
persuasive, earnest, and forcible. He was not the master of supe- 
rior analytical power, but was clear and lucid in the statement and 
generalization of the matter of debate. His speeches were care- 
fully prepared, logical in arrangement, and elevated in sentiment. 

I think Mr. Orth was not a severe student. His was not the 
patient and self-denying industry that questions the ages for the 



26 LIFE AND CBARACTER OF GODLOVE S. ORTH. 

secrets of the origin and institutions of government. He lived in 
the generation of which he was a part ; he loved the society of 
men, studied the living age, and kept abreast with its current his- 
tory, and was well informed on all questions of our domestic and 
foreign policy. 

But the social qualities of Mr. Orth charmed me more than 
his talents and intellectual culture. Who that knew him and 
enjoyed his friendship will ever forget his clear, kindly eye, the 
cheerful and honest smile that lit up his strong German face, and 
his warm and manly greeting ? In social intercourse Mr. Orth 
was amiable, confiding, and cordial. He felt no distrust and was 
incapable of deception. His temper was joyful, generous, and 
hopeful. In the society of his friends his spirits were buoyant, even 
at times overflowing with good humor and pleasantry, but never 
coarse or inconsiderate of the feelings of others, and his language as 
chaste as that of a refined woman. He was a man of kind and 
generous sympathies, gentle and considerate ; while easily aroused 
by a sense of injustice, and aggressive in defense, he was incapable 
of harboring a spirit of resentment or revenge. The very amia- 
bility of his disposition at times seemed to detract from the strength 
of his character and made him vacillate under the importunities of 
his friends. 

Political differences and partisan feuds did not impair his social 
relations, and through all his service here he numbered his friends 
alike on both sides of this Chamber. 

During the last summer, while the party contest was pending in 
which liis political friends were struggling to secure a quorum of the 
House, he came to my seat with the request that I should jiair with 
him on the pending measure and vote if necessary to make a quo- 
rum. A growing tumor, he said, required absence and medical at- 
tention. Of course I promptly yielded to his request. I thought 
then that I saw in his face and voice an expression of sadness. 
Perhajjs even then the voice of the shoreless ocean he was so soon 
to sail had fallen upon his ear. 

GoDLOVE S. Orth, after a service in public life, State and 
national, prolonged beyond the usual experience of our country, is 



ADDRESS OF MR. DEUSTER, OF WISCONSIN. 27 

dead ; a voice that has so often filled this Chamber is forever silent; 
a hetu-t that has throbbed with higli ambition and generous emotions 
for so many years is forever still ; a hand so warm and true in its 
grasp of friendship is dust and ashes. But he still lives ; all of our 
friend that commanded our love or inspired our admiration lives in 
memory, survives in the realm of the infinite and immortal. I had 
known him more than thirty years and had served with him many 
years in this Chamber, and with the record of his public services 
before me, differing as we had always on the leading measures of 
Government, I am rejoiced that I can say, in the severity of truth, 
"that record is one of faithful public service, unmarred by a stain 
of dishonor, beneficial to his country, of high honor to himself" 



Address of Mr. Deuster, of Wisconsin. 

Mr. Speaker : In the ceaseless war of the fell destroyer, 
Death, upon humanity, another useful life has run its course long 
before, in our expectations, its bright period of earthly existence 
should have been completed. 

The fine qualities of our late distinguished colleague, Godlove 
S. Orth, have been fitly extolled by the eloquent gentlemen who 
have preceded me. I can essay to add but little to the well- 
chosen words of their eulogistic remarks, and nothing that the 
merits of our deceased fellow-member did not surpass far beyond 
the value of a mere tribute of praise. 

Long prominent in public life as he had been, more than usual 
interest naturally attached itself to his personal acquaintance, 
and I therefore carefully studied, the man long before our mere 
acquaintance, formed during the Forty-sixth Congress, ripened 
into the intimacy of our friendship during the present Congress. 
What I had seen of him before had impressed me so favorably 
that, upon our being brought more closely together by our serv- 
ice upon the Committee on Foreign Affairs, we became muc^h at- 
tached to each othcr,'and I had many opportunities for admiring 
his practical sense, his ready conception of a subject in all its 
bearings, and the faithful attention he gave to the matters placed 



28 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GODLOFE S. ORTH. 

in liis experienced care. He especially placed me nnder personal 
obligations by the warm interest lie took in a measure I had in- 
troduced, and which is now pending before this Congress, in regard 
to our treaty-relations with Germany. He readily accepted a 
place upon the sub-committee which took the measure in charge, 
and met me frequently at home or in the committee-room to dis- 
cuss this subject with all the warmth and zeal of the patriot, the 
cool calculation of the diplomatist, and the discernment of the 
statesman. Even the last work of this snb-committee bears the 
imjtrint of his genial mind, the draft of the substitute finally 
agreed upon being in his handwriting — a document which I shall 
ever treasure for its hallowed reminiscences. 

GoDLOVE S. Orth was not a man easily ovei-looked or readily 
forgotten. The loss of no man in this House or its predecessor 
has been more deeply felt or so generally regretted. He had dis- 
tinguished himself in the field, in the civil service, in the arena of 
forensic skill. His death has called forth expressions of sym- 
pathy and regret, not only in his own ytate but in the press of the 
whole country. To no one would it liehoove us more to pay that 
sacred tribute — homage to the dead — than to our late associate, 
who closed in our midst a career of usefulness such as few can at- 
tain to during the same period of life, closed, too, while still in 
the prime and vigor of manhood, in the midst of life and useful- 
ness, ri[)e in honors, but not in years. 

His place may be filled, but will it be filled so well as he has 
done ? His voice is silent ; but the mind that caused its utter- 
ances has left its stamp uj^on the history of the day. He is no 
longer with us ; but Godlove S. Orth will be remembered until 
they who so remember him must needs ask remembrance of the 
future for themselves. 

There is a deep, sad lesson conveyed by this solenui hour to us, 
the living, who see in the coui-se of a few years so many manly 
bearers of illustrious names disappear from the sphere of activity 
in which they have filled important places. It teaches us that 
with the master-minds who grasped great subjects and helped to 
build the greatness of a nation must perish also, by the unrelent- 



ADDRESS OF Mli. BELTZHOOVER, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 29 

ing hand of grim Death, all that vast experience, the gems of 
thought, the priceless knowledge, the illimital)le reasoning ])o\ver 
wliich carried their possessors, above a multitude that stood will- 
ingly aside, into the foremost ranks of the men of the day. 

Is such loss not deeply deplorable when we remember how all 
these (pialities might have asserted themselves, as they should, 
during a far longer period of usefulness than that vouchsatkl to 
many of our best men ? 

When the bright luster of an active mind has been dimmed by 
old age, we feel that nature claims its rights after the zenith of ca- 
pacity has been reached ; but we stand with awe in the presence 
of death when its icy touch silences lips that have pleaded so re- 
cently with the impassioned eloquence of strong manhood, or 
when its withering breath fells to the bier a man who but yester- 
day seemed busied in ceaseless activity. 

(lODLOVF, S. OrtTH, too, has been called from the scene of his 
earthly labors long before his friends, his constituents, and his 
country could reap the fullest advantages of his patriotism, his sa- 
gacitv, his devotion. He has been removed from our midst in 
the maturity of his powers and abilities, with unmeasured oppor- 
tunities still before him. But he has left behind him the traces of 
a strong mind imprinted upon important acts of legislation, upon 
national history itself Mere words of acknowledgment will not 
do him justice. He has justly earned a warm place in the hearts 
of his friends, the gratitude of his State, and the respect of the 
countrv. May his memory ever be cherished ! 



Address of Mr. Beltzhoover, of Pennsylvania. 
Mr. Speaker: — 

To our graves we walk 
In the tbick footstejis of departed men. 

Seven times during the brief period of its existence this great 
legislative body has been halted in its deliberations by the inexora- 
ble messenger of Death. The brilliant and eloquent O'Connor fell 
first on tlie very threshold of the present term. Then Mr. Allen, 



30 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF OODLOVE S. ORTH. 

the distinguished business Representative from the metropolis of 
the Mississippi Valley, was stricken down. Then the gallant sol- 
dier, Mr. Hawk, who carried ever with iiini the silent testimonial of 
his service and sacrifice for his country, was summoned suddenly 
away. Then Colonel Lowe, after a long struggle and brief fruition 
of the honors of his place here, heard "the inaudible and noiseless 
footstep" at his door. Then Mr. Updegraff died just as he had 
taken with great toil and endeavor a new lease upon that " habitation 
giddy and unsure which is built upon the public mind." 

Then the venerable statesman Mr. Orth, whose memory we are 
convened to honor on this occasion, departed full of years and hon- 
ors. And last the young and kind and genial Mr. Shackelford, in 
the very prime of a promising manhood, was rudely taken from his 
country's service and the sweet compaTiionship of his family and 
his friends. No preyious Congress in all the long years of our na- 
tional history has had such a death-roll. With admonishing fre- 
quency the supreme and solemn problem which all the ages have 
striven in vain to solve has been thrust upon us. In all times and 
in all lands it has been the most earnest and imperishable desire of 
the human mind to peer beyond the sable curtain of the tomb, which 
never outward swings. In one unbroken caravan the myriads of 
mankind from creation's dawn have gone out into the mysterious 
night of death. No single traveler has ever yet returned; nay, 
more, from ijone of the countless millions has ever yet come back 
a sign or token. There is no mystery like death. There is no theme 
so sublime and grand as immortality. It has been the fondest dream 
of humanity in every age and clime, and among all classes and con- 
ditions of men, from the philosopher in the pristine days of the 
academy to the rudest bushman in the wilds of the jungle. AVhen 
Sarpedon, the son of Jove, was slain before the walls of Troy, the 
greatest poet of all time, in his matchless epic, says : 

Apollo, with divine ambrosia all his limbs 
AnointiD)^, clothed him in immortal robes. « 

To two swift bearers'gave him then in charge. 
Sleep and Death-, twin brothers. 

The learning and philosophy and revelation of three thousand 
years have given to the yearning world no more light than that 



ADDRESS OF MR. BELTZHOOVER, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 31 

which greeted the doubly darkened vision of the " blind old bard 
of Scio's rocky isle." Is it sleep or death? As we stand on the 
echoless shore and watch the bark of life go out and sink below the 
vision line of that silent, tideless sea, we cannot say whether it is 
death or sleep whose silken hands have seized our parting friend. 
We cannot know whether it is an ending forever or a resting be- 
tween the feverish toil of life and the dawning of the work-day of 
eternity. 

But with all its marvelous drapery in the thought and poetry and 
sono- of all the ages of the past there never was a time when there 
was so much indifference to death as now. Is it because after cen- 
turies of fruitless struggles with the inscrutable theme men have 
dropped it in despair and stand mute and resigned before the un- 
known and unknowable? Is it because the superstitious fear of 
death has faded before the brightening dawn of reason ? Is it be- 
cause of faith in a religion which points its promises beyond the 
tomb? We do not know. From whichever cause, it is clear that 
with the release from the ancient terror of death, either through 
philosophy or stoicism or faith, mankind have been infinitely the 
gainers. The great English philosopher says : " Men fear death as 
children hate to go into the dark." This is the whole reason of the 
subject. It is a childish, ignorant fear, unworthy of manhood and 
knowledge. 

The more we know tiie less we fear, whether our knowledge be 
based on the cold confidence of reason or the silent submission to 
the inevitable or the triumphant trust of the enthusiast in fiiith. 
The basest tyrant that ever enslaved mankind is the superstitious 
fear of death. It has been the stock in trade on which the priest- 
hood have lived and prospered in all times. It has been the founda- 
tion-stone on which all the countless cruelties and crimes and follies 
of all religions have been built. With relief from this unmanly 
and unreasonable dread of death humanity has turned its face to- 
ward Jife and its duties. The curse of all generations has been the 
neglect of the present for the future, the disregard of the demands 
of the hour and the frittering away of the narrow span of time here 
for the shadowy speculations on eternity. 



32 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GODLOVE S. ORTH. 

Because men liave eome to a practical belief on this subject the 
world has sprung from the slavish toils of the past, with its priest- 
craft and prejudices, into the grand development of human life and 
thought. The ideal of this age is the enjoyment of the blessings 
of life and the acquisition of the means to secure them. The ob- 
ject of life is to live, and not to die. The Pauline precept that " no 
man liveth to himself " contains the grand fundamental declaration 
of the only unselfish purpose of existence, and embodies the sub- 
stance of all tlie faith which is believed to-day, the faith which 
builds up and creates and increases human enjoyment — the religion 
of humanity. 

The Platonic school, centuries before Paul was born, proclaimed 
the same great basic fact of all the faith which intelligent men 
will ever honestly accept. This is the spirit and belief in which 
the statesman whom we honor to-day worked out the problem 
of life. To enforce and illustrate the efforts and results of his 
life's struggles we have referred to the marvelous changes which 
have followed in the wake of the world's revolutions in thought 
and morals and society and government. 

GoDLOVE Stoner Orth was born on the 22d day of April, 1817, 
near Lebanon, Pennsylvania. He entereil Pennsylvania College, at 
Gettysburgh, in 1834, and remained until 1837. He was the orator 
of his society in 1836 and its disputant in 1837. He read law and 
was admitted to the bar at Gettysburgh in 1839. He subsequently 
removed to La Fayette, Indiana, where he practiced his profession 
and made his life's home. He was a member of the State senate of 
Indiana from 1843 to 1849, serving a part of the time as speaker 
and e.v officio as lieutenant-governor of the State. He was a mem- 
ber of the Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, Forty-first, Forty- 
third, Forty-sixth, and Forty-seventh Congresses. He M-as a mem- 
ber of the peace conference of 1861, and one of the most trusted 
advisers of Mr. Lincoln through the war of the rebellion. He was 
minister to the court of Vienna in 1875— '76. He was captain of 
Company G, Seventy-sixth Regiment Indiana Volunteers. He re- 
ceived the degree of LL. D. from his alma muter in 1874. He 
died on the 16th day of December, 1882, in the sixty-fifth year of 
his age. 



ADDRESS OF MR. BELTZBOOVER, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 3'^ 

His life was one niu'oasing striigirle with adverse fate, but was 
orowiH'd wit!) oorrespondiiig victories, and friendly hands eau frame 
no more eloquent euloirv tlian to record tlie lessons which liis ca- 
reer teaches. He was born among a quiet, industrious, frugal, 
farmer people. His ancestors had few opportunities for intellectual 
culture, and he himself had but little means and less encouragement 
to procure an education. He spent his early years in an atmosphere 
from which he could draw no inspiration or incentive to the higher 
and nobler aims of life. By the force of his own inherent genius and 
character he came )ip from the depths and fought his way unaided 
and alone to success and fame. No one can adequately understand 
and appreciate the obstacles which surround and bar the jirogress 
of a young man born of unlettered ancestors in an unjirogressive 
rural district. 

The sordid battle for subsistence which is waged for generations 
among such a people constrains their lives to the narrowest views 
of the ends of being. The struggle is to live, and, this achieved, 
the consummation of human endeavor is reached. The great sat- 
irist, Juvenal, says: "They do not easily rise whose abilities are re- 
pressed by poverty £tt home." From such unpropitious beginnings 
Mr. Orth rose slowly and steadily, single-handed in his contest 
with untoward fate, until he conquered an honorable place among 
men. The law of com])ensation, which never fails in any of the 
arrangements of nature, contributed to help as unfavorable circum- 
stances hindered him. He inherited in his humbleness of birth 
some things which were wonderful auxiliaries in his conflict with 
the world. He got from his sturdy ancestors a strong and enduring 
frame, a clear, healthy brain, a persistent and unconquerable in- 
du.stry, and th:it rare and invalualVle possession, great good common 
sense. He had a comprehensive and analytical intellect and a 
sound judgment. He was a vigorous and incisive speaker and 
formidable debater. He was a progressive and practical statesman 
and a capable and conservative legislator. A^ery few public men 
were as powerful before the {Xiojsle on the stump or in the forum. 
Very few of his compeers were more fnlly imbued with the utili- 
tarian spirit' of the times or applied themselves with more energy 
and intelligence to fairly- meet the demands of the country on the 
0173 3 



34 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GODLOVE S. ORTH. 

great questions in wliieh the people are most vitally interested. 
He was a cool, courageous, manly man. He knew his rights and 
fearlessly maintained them, as the records of the last session clearly 
show. 

In the very zenith of his career he learned the melancholy lesson 
that " virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes." He was the 
object of one of those malicious assaults which disgrace the politics 
of all countries, and particularly of this. This' malevolent slander 
thwarted the pursuit of his promising career just at the critical mo- 
ment when the future was fullest of hope. He utterly silenced his 
maligners when an opportunity came, but the poisoned shaft had 
done its wicked work. It served to lose the golden chance which, 
like the current, when it once goes by never returns. It left the 
dead statesman unscathed and clear, but it was an unhappy proof 
of the power of calumny in party politics in a free government. 
"Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent." 
But if there is one crime more dark and infamous than another it 
is the stabbing of fair and spotless reputation. On the tomb of myr- 
iads of worthy men, thus maimed and ruined in the midst of their 
fondest dreams of fame, could be appropriately written : 

A falcoTi towering in his pride of place, 
Was by a mousing owl hawked at- and killed. 

But it is better to have deserved success and failed than to have 
won the victor's crown by fraud and crime. It is the sublimest arti- 
cle in" the faith of humanity that as the world grows wiser the shams 
and frauds of its hero worship will perish with the superstitions of 
its dying mythology, and men will then be accorded credit for what 
they do and not for what they were ignorantly supposed to have 
done. 

In those better days, which are already breaking on the horizon 
of the years to come, there will be an impartial and unerring forum 
in which the judgments of passion and prejudice and malevolence 
will be reversed forever. With the growth of the world's wisdom 
there will be a new measure of success which will give to duty done 
credit for the weight of calumny and contumely and malice tlirough 
which a man fearlessly fought the uneven battle of life. To that 



ADDRESS OF MR. PEIRCE, OF INDIANA. 35 

sereue and certain ilay the dead statesman whose life and services 
we commemorate can sjifely trust his fame. 
In the beautiful lines of Catullus — 

Qui uiiuo it per iter tenebricosum 
nine uiule negant redire queniquam. 

He is now traveling the darksome path to that land from which 
they say no one ever returns. Whether the dark and silent jour- 
ney will eud in cold obstruction and oblivions death, or whether he 
will wake from his dreamless sleep in the glorious morning of 
another world, we do not know. We can only fondly hope and 
trust that the inexorable fote which cuts the thread of mortal life 

mav hold — 

The golden key 
Wliich opes the palace of eternity. 



Address of Mr. Peirce, of Indiana. 

Mr. Speaker : It is the common lot of all to die. We know 
that from this fate there is no escape. It is absolutely inevitable. 
We liiay look for it and see its near approach and yet are never 
ready to receive the grim messenger, no matter at what hour or in 
what guise he may appear. 

Leaves have their time to fall, 

And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath, 
And stars to set; but all, 

Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O death! 

Death lays his icy hands on our children, young, loving, and 
promising, and our hearts are wrung with grief. We cannot un- 
derstand the mystery of their death. We see the full-grown man, 
in all the pride of his strength and usefulness, called from life to 
death, and such a dispensation seems inscrutable and marvelous. 

Three-score years pass by and with them have come usefulness 
and honors and troops of friends, but the grim messenger calls his 
victim home, and in our weakness we cry out against the divine 
economy that makes it possible, and say that more years should be 



36 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GODLOVE S. ORTH. 

acldi'd for the enjoyment of all these achievements. Inevitable as 
death is, our natures always revolt at its arbitrary power. Death 
loves a shining mark, and we this day mourn the loss of a friend, 
a lawyer, a statesman, and a patriot. 

Living in a stirring age, it was his fortune to serve his country 
at a time that called for the exercise of statesmanship and patriot- 
ism of the highest order. Few men have seen more public service, 
and few men have been more honored. 

I need not now and here trace his steps at length from early life 
through all the struggles of boyhood and manhood until he achieved 
his final success. That has already been done by my colleague 
[-Mr. Browne]. But it is a matter of absorbing interest that he had 
the iron will and nerve in 1839 to leave his home in Pennsylvania 
and seek a then far-off State, with slender means and among stran- 
gers, to win for himself a home and fame. The will and the cour- 
age that prompted him to this were sure signs of ultimate success. 
With all our present railroad facilities it is now hard to realize the 
undertaking of a journey to a new State requiring weeks in its ac- 
complishment. He selected La Fayette for his home and lived 
there until his death, a period of forty-three years, and for that 
city he always had the greatest pride and affection. Engaging in 
the practice of the law at a bar composed of men notably and con- 
spicuously able in their profession, he soon won his way to the 
front ranksand kept it until he entered the broader field of politics. 
In the practice of the law and in politics his life was full of strug- 
gles and antagonisms, and yet he won and held in the highest de- 
gree the confidence and respect of all with wdiom he came in con- 
tact. 

It has always seemed to me that one of the most striking ele- 
ments of his character was to be found in the courage of his con- 
victions. His judgment was formed after mature and deliberate 
reflection, and once formed he stood by it firmly and immovably. 
He was never a time-server, and his record is full of instances il- 
lustrating this element of his character. I will give but one. When 
the issue was made upon the currency question very many of the 
leading men of his party were inclined to go with what seemed to 
be the ruling passion of the hour, and in their anxiety to catch the 



ADDRESS OF MB. PEIRCE, OF INDIANA. 37 

popular breeze sailed far away from the record of the party. The 
effect of these leaders so actiug was deiiioraliziug in the extreme. 

]\Ir. Orth had voted for the resiim])tiou act aud for all the lead- 
ing features of the financial policy of his party. That policy was 
on trial. Many thought it a mistake, and evil effects from it were 
prophesied freely on every hand ; but well do I remember his hero- 
ism at that hour. In my city, where he was always a favorite, he 
was greeted with an audience that any man might be proud to face; 
and when he came to discuss that jiolicy of his party how well do 
I remember him ! With that serious, deliberate, aud determined 
manner that always attracted and convinced, he said: " I voted for 
the resumption act. I believe I did right, aud I should do so 
again." When he had finished his argument the doubting aud 
hesitating were won completely over to him, and from that time 
on there was no doubt in their minds of the propriety and value of 
that legislation. Subsequent events have shown the wisdom of 
his action aud the value of his services in breasting the storm of 
opposition and remaining steadfast to correct doctrines. Such 
spirits are the salvation of all parties. 

Mr. Orth possessed a kind and sympathetic heart. His hand 
and heart were open to every appeal and no one was ever turned 
away. He was especially kind and tender in looking after the in- 
terests of the needy, and when his great heart ceased to beat, and 
distingnished men and high officials of the State and nation were 
gathering to pay their last sad tribute of respect, there came also 
very many humble men to drop their tears. While the public were 
being admitted to look for the last time upon that kindly face many 
old friends and neighbors wept bitterl}'. Among those who came 
was an old German i-oMier, in whose claim for pension Mr. Orth 
had especially interested himself ("rippled with wounds received 
in honorable service under the old flag, decrepit from age, almost 
too feeble to walk unassisted, and liraving the dangers of verv bad 
weather, the old man had dragged himself into the house. In his 
hand he carried a small sprig of evergreen. Entering the room 
containing the remains, his eyes fell upon that face he knew and 
loved so wtll. Taking those cold hands in his and kissing them 
over and over again, he gave way to his grief and wept bitterly. 



38 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GODLOVE S. OBTH. 

Looking up through his tears he exclaimed : " He was kinder than 
a father to me! Oh, what shall I do now that he is gone!" Lay- 
ing the evergreen inside the casket, he said : " I am so poor, this 
is the onlv offering I can bring to him who was so good to me." 
He beggid that the evergreen might be buried with his friend, 
and turned again and again to look upon that silent face until led 
away by the attendants. What higher and better tribute could be 
paid to his goodness and greatness than this. He had been over 
and over elected to the highest legislative body on earth ; he had 
been high in the counsels of the men who controlled the destinies of 
his people in the hours of their deepest gloom ; he enjoyed the con- 
fidence of Presidents and Cabinet officers, of judges and Senators, 
and members of the House to which he belonged ; he had repre- 
sented our country at the court of one of the richest and most pow- 
erful countries of Europe, and yet he never lost the affection of the 
humblest of his friends at home. They were among the very first 
to give evidence of their appreciation of his virtues and to mourn 
his loss. 

The life of a public man is in some respects most undesirable. 
He may have lived beyond reproach, but too often his entrance 
into politics makes him the mark for all the shafts of envy and 
malice. It seems impossible for any public man to receive perfectly 
fair treatment ; and it would be difficult to find any one in public 
life who had not at some time been treated in such a way as to have 
the iron enter his soul. Mr. Orth was in public life when public 
excitement ran high and at a time when partisan feeling was in- 
tense, and in the contests through which he pa.«sed he knew some 
of the bitterness and rancor of party strife. And yet he so pur- 
sued the even tenor of an upright way that he retained the respect 
and esteem of those who were most active in the opposing ranks. 
More than once did he allude with feelings of evident delight and 
satisfaction to the fiict of the entire delegation from his State in 
Congress uniting in recommending and in urging his appointment 
to a foreign mission. And no one was more prompt and ready to 
do justice to others than he. He could not and would not consent 
to see any one unjustly assailed, and he would not stand Iw and 
'hear a false accusation made for any mere temporary partisan pur- 



ADDEESS OF MB. PEIRCE, OF INDIANA. 39 

pose. At one time an estrangement came between himself and 
another very prominent gentleman of the opposite party, and for 
several years their social relations were interrupted. In a party of 
gentlemen one day he heard the integrity of this gentleman as- 
sailed. With flashing eye and indignant mien he came to his res- 
cue and said: " I have known him for years. He is my political 
enemy and I am not on terms of personal intimacy with him ; but 
I know him to be an honest and incorruptible man, and I will not 
silently allow his good name to be impeached." The incident came 
to the ears of the gentleman, and brought him to Mr. Oeth at 
once for a reconciliation, which followed, and always afterward they 
enjoyed each other's friendship and confidence. 

No reference to the character of Mr. Oeth would do him jus- 
tice that did not greatly emphasize his habit of industry. He be- 
lieved that now was the time for the discharge of every duty, and 
faithfully he followed that belief. Upon receipt of a letter, no mat- 
ter from whom it might come, he seemed impatient until its answer 
should be speeding on its way. He believed that anything worth 
doing at all wa.s worth doing well, and he gave his whole attention 
to every matter engaging his mind. Every detail received full 
consideration, and the amount of work be accomplished seemed al- 
most marvelous. As a legislator he labored not alone for general 
results, but it was his ambition to make every law perfect in all its 
details. 

Mr. Orth was passionately fond of his family circle, and here 
the best qualities of the heart were most apj)arent. He believed 
in the sanctity of home, and that tiie man who was true in his 
family relations could not be untrue to the Ixmor of liie nation. 
While he fullv appreciated the honors of pulilic Hie and «a.-(letj)ly 
sensible of all he had won, yet he believed they were only valua- 
ble as they come home to heighten the cnjnynient of tliat little cir- 
cle that gathered about his hearthstone. All hopes, all honors, all 
aspirations, led him back to the charmed circle. Devoted, tender, 
and true, his loss has iallen upon that little circle with crusliing 
force. 

Mr. Orth's nature contained a deep religious vein. ^A itlic.ut 
obtruding it upon others' attention he always maintained the high- 



40 LIFE AND CAHRACTER OF GODLOVE S. ORTH. 

est respect for religion and religious institutions. The opinion of 
good people always afforded him the liveliest satisfaction, and he 
constantly had in view the desire to so conduct himself as to bring 
no reproach upon himself and to merit high opinion of good men. 
In one of my familiar conversations with him, which were always 
appreciated by me, he said to me : "A member of Congress cannot 
be too circumspect in his conduct here. He should remember that 
every night pious people are kneeling down and praying for him." 
Our friend is gone, and those who enjoyed his confidence and 
friendship, who loved him for his estimable qualities and so profited 
by his wisdom and experience, sincerely mourn his loss. But he 
is not lost to us. He is still with us in a bright and enduring ex- 
ample. He has left to the country the legacy of a well-spent life. 
To the youth of the country he leaves an example of industry, of 
perseverance, of honesty, of patriotism, and of success, to inspire 
them with lofty and ambitious purposes. 



Address of Mr. Davis, of Illinois. 

Mr. Speaker : In the midst of an active service, where personal 
cares and requirements press upon us, where our duties and re- 
sponsibilities are so great that we become aggressive and head- 
strong in their performance and observance ; in a life upon this 
floor, where seemingly the hours are altogether too short and the 
day itself but a brief hour ; where strong men grapple in debate 
at times almost as fiercely as warriors do in battle; where the skill 
and adroitness of tlie one is only counteracted by the logic, the 
eloquence, and the activity of the other; wliere time appears to be 
the great desideratum and men are taught that an hour lost or di- 
verted is almost a calamity ; while thus thoroughly engaged and 
absorbed in these activities, oblivious apparently to matters of 
graver concern, we have been brought to a halt by the command of 
the immortal Speaker of Mankind, and reminded and admonished 
in the most forcible and iinj)ressive manner that we are but mortal. 

How suddenly and how frequently this terrible command lias 
been given this House is a sad remembrance to us ail. 



ADDRESS OF MR. DAVIS, OF ILLINOIS. 41 

It is our custom, ami as I believe an eminently proper one, that 
we of our own motion sjiould stop in the activities of this Cham- 
ber, and laying aside all thought of pressiug duty devote an hour 
to the memory and honor of those of our members who have been 
called hence to a higher life, to a higher sphere of action, and to 
the lesson which it teaches. 

This hour we devote to-day to the memory of our departed 
friend and member, Godlove S. Orth, of Indiana; and I would 
not that this hour should pass without rising in my place and sav- 
ing a word in testimony and to the memory and to the honor of 
this grand old man. Old not in years, old not in appearance or 
in' physical and mental power, but old and grand in the service of 
his country ; a diplomat, a soldier, and a statesman, for a period of 
upward of forty years almost continuously he served his State and 
his country well. 

His colleagues upon this floor, with exact data of his public 
service, having intimate relations and full knowledge of his public 
life and perstmal character, ha\'e spoken elotpiently and in excel- 
lent taste of his great worth. I speak of him, and only briefly, 
as .we knew him here in recent years, and as a warm friend and as 
a true man. 

jVIr. Orth was prominent in this body as one of its leaders, both 
in counsel and in debate. His great experience, his thorough fa- 
miliarity with the histoi-y of his country and the necessities of its 
people; his tpiick perception; his cultured mind, where were 
stored the treasures of a long and active public life; his steadfast 
adherence to the principles of his ]>olitical faith, rendered him in- 
valuable in this legislative assembly, in the preparation and in the 
enactment of wise and lieneficial'laws in the interest of the people 
and the country. He was specially adapted to this service in which 
he took great pride and labored industriously. 

As a debater Mr. Okth took high rank. Never was challenge 
in debate sent him which he did not instantly accept, and from a 
mind of remarkable resources and of great activity he supported 
his position wiih such an array of facts and illustrations, so tersely 
put, with argument so logical and eloquent, with an earnestness of 



42 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GODLOVE S. OBTH. 

manner, aggressive yet courteous and convincing, which carried 
conviction to the minds of all that he was honest in his belief and 
that he had the courage of his own convictions. 

He was a statesman in the broader sense ; he gave his energy, 
his ffreat talents, and the best efforts of his mind to matters of 
national concern and in the interest of the general public. He 
was too broad for selfishness, too great to become useless through 
envy or jealousy, and the undermining or tearing down of an- 
other's position by secret metliods for his own advancement was 
beneath him. He would extend the same candor to an opponent 
which he would expect for himself, and would take an advanced and 
manly jjosition, not obtruding, yet courageous in the consciousness 
of his own ability to sustain himself and the cause which he ad- 
vocated by merit alone. 

Mr. Orth was strong and aggressive in his own belief, yet sen- 
sitive as a child, and warm, exceedingly warm, in his friendships. 

I shall not forget liow this grand ohl man, with his forty years 
of experience in public life resting so gracefully upon him aud 
lio-hting up as with a halo his charming countenance, greete<l me 
for the first time as I entered this Hall, a new and young member 
of this body; with that smile which was characteristic of him and 
which had became a part of his very nature — warm, cordial, and 
dignified, with outstretched hands grasping both of mine in his he 
bade me welcome to public life, its duties and its responsibilities. 
With great delicacy he pointed out the various methods of success- 
*ful legislation, and gave in kindest manner such information as he 
thought would be of immediate service, so valuable to a new and 
so often unthought of by an old member. The acquaintance thus 
formed ripened into a warm and generous friendship, which con- 
tinued uninterruptedly until " his light of life went out." 

Mr. Orth was a true man in the best acceptation of that term, 
true to his own manhood, true to his own convictions, true to his 
family, true to all the requirements of his position in life, true to 
the end to the duties imposed upon him by an exacting and dis- 
criminating public. 

Mr. Orth was an American proud of his country, its free insti- 
tutions, and of the unexampled progress of its people. When 



ADDRESS OF MB. DE MOTTE, OF INDIANA. ' 43 

presented as the representative of this nation at court in Vienna, 
he addressed the foreign sovereign in the native tongue of the 
realm so perfectly that the emperor immediately inquired what 
part of the empire he claimed as his nativity. True to his coun- 
trv and proud of its citizenship, thanking the emperor for his com- 
pliment, he answered, " I am, sir, an American citizen, as my 
fathers before me have been for one hundred years." 

The every act of this man in a long and useful public life, in 
his personal characteristics, the voice, the gesture, the expression, 
evidenced to all his thorough equipment for his service, the abso- 
lute sincerity of his motives, and the secret of his suwess in the 
brilliant career just closed. 

We bow in reverential attitude to-day and mourn the loss of 
this distinguished member. We commemorate his virtues and pay 
tribute to his great achievements. 

In this sad affliction we feel grateful in the consolation we have 
that his race is better that he lived : that it was well that such a 
life had been led and such an example left. 

By his death this House loses one of its old and most honored 
members; Indiana one of her great men; the nation one of its 
safest counselors ; the people a friend and benefactor. 



Address of Mr. De Motte, of Indiana. 

Mr. Speaker: For the eighth time the shadow of death has 
fallen upon this House. Mr. Wood, of New York ; Mr. O'Con- 
nor, of South Carolina ; Mr. Allen, of Missouri ; Mr. Hawk, of 
Illinois; Mr. Lowe, of Alabama; Mr. Updegraff, of Ohio; Mr. 
Orth, of Indiana, and Mr. Shackelford, of North Carolina, have 
successively been stricken down while discharging the high trust 
committed to them liy the people. There is no time, from baby- 
hood to hoary age, when the appearance of death does not seem to 
us inopportune. There are no circumstances under which it is not 
appalling. It has been wisely ordered that we may not know the 
time appointed for us to die. The vast book of nature, that un- 



44 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF (lODLOVE S. ORTH. 

failing storehouse of knowledge, the Book divine, with its prophe- 
cies, its proverbs, and its promises, give no formula by which we 
may calculate the days allotted us. 

We have met to-day to honor the memory of one of the oldest, 
most experienced, and ablest of our number ; one who for many 
years iiad served the people of his State in this Chamber and in 
other places of dignity and responsibility. Ripe in years, vigor- 
ous in mind, wise in counsel, sincerely devoted to the service of his 
countrv and his race, we deeply deplore his loss. 

GoDLOVE S. Orth was the last but one of a brilliant company 
of young men who at about the same time became prominent in 
the politics of Indiana. 

That political pentecost, the campaign of 1840, gave tongues of 
iire to these gifted young men. With an earne-itness and power 
before that unknown in political discussion; with the fervor of the 
religious devotee, their eloquence, at the recollection of which the 
eyes of the survivors of that memorable campaign still kindle with 
enthusiasm, was irresistible in rallying the people to the support of 
General Harrison. 

Most gifted of these and of nearly the same age were George H. 
Protht, Joseph G. Marshall, George G. Dunn, Samuel W. Parker, 
E. W. McGaughey, Henry S. Lane,GoDLOVE S. Orth, and Rich- 
ard W. Thompson. I .say with the jmde of a native Indianian no 
State in this Union, no community of people anywhere of equal 
numbers, ever produced in one gencriition a more brilliant company. 

Proffit was twice elected to Congress, and by the able manner in 
which he discharged his duties secured the fullest confidence of his 
constituents. In the strength of ids manhood he passed away with 
the generation preceding this. 

Marshall, estimated by those now living who knew him as the 
most talented and scholarly of them all,aftei- having been the can- 
didate of his party for governor of his State, died before 1850, be- 
loved and honored by the people. 

E. AV. McGaughey was a boy in stature and in personal appear- 
ance, but a giant in intellect. Genial, witty, logical, and happy in 
the use of language, he was forniidal)le upon the stump and at the 



ADDRESS OF MR. 1)E MOTTE, OF INDIANA. 45 

• 
liar. He was dearly beloved by liis party friends, and tliev rallied 
around " Little Ned," as tiny familiarly called him, with an enthu- 
siasm rarely equaled. A ^\'hig, he was twice elected to Congress 
from a pronounced Democj-atic district. His was not a nature to 
endure defeat, so when defeat came he turned from the associations 
of his youth to a new field of labor. On his way to the then newlv- 
discovered El Dorado on the Pacific coast, while crossing the Isth- 
mus of Panama, he was stricken by a malignant fever, and with 
the roaring of the two great oceans for his requiem he died. 

George G. Dunn was twice elected toCougrcss. Before arriving 
at middle age, in the midst of his usefulness and in the enjoyment 
of the fullest confidence of the people, he was gathered to his 
fathers. 

Samuel W. Parker was also twice elected to Congress, and died 
more than a quarter of a century ago, honored by the people of 
the whole State. 

It was given to three only of these gifted men to approach the 
limit of life assigned by the psalmist. 

Henry S. Lane, " the Henry Clay of Indiana," as he was some- 
times appropriately called, while perha])s least ambitions for official 
positions, wa.s most highly houoi-ed with them. The people of In- 
diana withheld from him nothing they had to bestow. He was 
elected to the legislature, a member of Congress, the governor of 
his State, and United States Senator, in all of which positions he 
stood shoulder to shoulder with the ablest of his a-ssociates. Re- 
tiring from the Senate in 1867, he s}x>nt the remainder of his davs 
in quiet usetiilness in the beautiful little city which had been his 
home for almost half a century. Less than two years ago he went 
to his rest, honored and lieloved bV all. 

The second of the trio to enter the valley and shadow was Gou- 
LOVE S. Orth, in honor of whom tiiis august body has set apart 
this hour. 

He was the youngest of the brilliant comjiany of 1840. Less 
gifted by nature, perhaps, than some of his companions, he made 
recompense therefor by unremitting study and honest, conscientious 
devotion to the letter as well as the spirit of the work he had in 



46 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GODLOVE S. ORTH. 

hand. Elected to the senate of his State when but twenty-five 
years of age, he immediately became so necessary to that body and 
took such high rank as a legislator and parliamentarian that after 
two years' service he was elected president of the senate. From 
that time until the day of his death he was a trusted party leader. 
Skilled in the rare faculty of estimating his fellow-men correctly, 
he was an efficient organizer. Mild mannered yet plain spoken, 
always sincere and able to impress his associates with that sincerity, 
he was a peacemaker and a promoter of harmony. Deliberate, 
cautious, and yielding when preparing for the struggles of public 
life, he was quick, obstinate, and aggressive when those struggles 
were ujjon him. In my judgment but few men of his disposition 
and habits of mind could assume his proportions in an emergency. 

For forty years, with here and there an exceptional year, the peo- 
ple who knew him best have kept him in positions of responsibility 
and honor, in all of which he so demeaned himself as to command 
their love and confidence. 

I doubt not I will be pardoned for turning for one moment from 
the honored dead to the honored living. Hail to thee, Dick Thomp- 
son, last of the brilliant company of 1840 ; peer of thy coadjutors 
in all things and superior to them in many ! May the time be far 
distant when thy voice, to which the people of thy State have for 
forty years so eagerly turned for counsel, encouragement, and in- 
spiration, shall be stilled in death. 

The labors of Godlove S. Orth are ended. 

" The record of a noble life is that life's best eulogy ; the history 
of the deeds of worthy men their most lasting epitaph." 

What Mr. Oeth has accomplished for his country and his fellow- 
men is (lur inheritance. 

I can make no better wish for my State nor for the nation than 
that their destiny for the future may be controlled by men so able, 
so patriotic, so wise, so good as he. 



ADDRESS OF MB. FORD, OF MISSOURI. 47 



Address of Mr. FoRD, of Missouri. 

Mr. Speaker: It was my good fortune to be somewhat infi- 
raately associated with Mr. Orth in the Forty-sixth and first ses- 
sion of the Forty-seventh Congress. Sitting at his side, I had rare 
Opportunity of knowing and learning to esteem a tlioroughly repre- 
sentative American statesman. Mr. Orth was kind and consid- 
erate, and although a man of varied experience, a citizen who had 
represented his Government abroad with great ability and was not 
less conspicuous as a legislator in the councils of his country, he 
was yet unpretending, indulgent, and generous. Mr. Speaker, Mr. 
Orth was proud of his country and devoted to the republican 
form of government. He had seen the degradation of the millions 
affected by the pernicious system inseparalile from monarchy, and 
realized the full force of that great truth, " the people can best gov- 
ern themselves." 

He was a sincere, ardent believer in the dignity of American 
citizenship, and would proclaim it with as much fervor in the pres- 
ence of kings as when addressing an audience in the State of In- 
diana. Naturalized citizens appreciate his fidelity and revere his 
memory ; and I shall take leave to add the preamble and resolu- 
tion adopted at a meeting of Irish-American citizens as a tribute to 
the worth of an estimable, distinguished American citizen : 

Clan-na-Gael Hall, 
Washington, D. C, January 10, 1883. 

At the regular meeting of the Clau-ua-Gacl Association held ou this date, 
the following preamble and resolution were passed unanimously : 

Whereas we have learned of the death of the late Hon. G. S. Orth, ex-min- 
ister to Vienna, and chairman of the sub-committee of Foreign Affairs 
charged with thedutj'of inquiriug into the cases of the American citizens im- 
prisoned by the British in Ireland; and 

Whereas Hon. Mr. Orth, as Representative and citizen, manifested a sin- 
cere sympathy for the Irish people and those who served and suffered for 
them, and faithfully and efficiently performed his duty as chairman of the 
sub-committee above referred to: Therefore, 

Be it resoh'td. That we, as American citizens of Irish birth or origin, ex- 



48 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GODLOVE S. ORTff. 

press our deep au'l heartfelt regret at his (i<*ath anfl the consequent loss to his 
family of a devoted aud atfectionate busliaud and father, to the Republic of 
one of its purest, noMest. aud ablest Representatives and citizens, and to the 
Irish people of a faithful, earnest, and practical friend. 

It was ordered that a copy of the above be tiled with the records of the 
association, and that copies be forwarded to Mrs. Orth aud to the Speaker of 
the Hou.se of Representatives. 
On behalf of the Clan-na Gael. 

ED. MEAGHER CONDON, 
JAMES DILLON, 
JAMES BELLEW, 

Committee on Resolutions 



Address of Mr. DoxEY, of Indiana. 

Mr. Speaker: By tlio^e who were fellow-members, colaborers, 
and the political associate.s of my lamented predeee.-^sor have his 
virtues been praised and his talents appropriately applauded. With 
tongues whose brilliancy has awakened these chambers in the pres- 
ence of him of whom we would this day sjieak, and whose eloquence 
and wi.sdom have attracted his attention and his admiration, has his 
life been reviewed. All tliis has licen said so beautifully and bv 
words laden with such pure love that I feel all has been .said that 
need be .said. 

A monument typical of the personal and political character of 
this distinguished statesman and patriot has been built here by 
friends this day ; but I, as his successor to a seat in this Hou.se, and 
for many years his constituent and admirer, cannot permit this last 
opportunity to pa.ss to ca.st upon the mound beneath which slum- 
bers his memory a rosebud, a leaf, some simple emblem to mark 
the appreciation in which I held him while living and the sorrow I 
feel at his loss. 

He has gone from among its, and the chair he occupied will 
never be filled by any one nn)re pure in nature, more lofty and 
courageous in his actions, more kind and gentle in his every word. 
He won the hearts of those he chanced to meet wherever lie went. 
He was frank, he was honest, he was plain. None loved him bet- 
ter than those who knew him best. In his own home city, where 



ADDBESS OF ilR. DOXEY, OF INDIANA. ■ 49 

his daily walivs were most conspicuous, was he held in highest 
esteem. 

There wa.s no secrecy in his private life. He was the soul of 
truth. History am reveal nothing which will detract from the 
purity of his life and character. 

His politeness was one of his most prominent characteristics. It 
was of the genuine type, that which springs from the true goodness 
of heart, that politeness which ever seeks to contribute to the hap- 
piness of others and which avoids all that could give pain. He 
studiously avoided personal bitterness. He could discuss a political 
question with an opponent who differed most widely from him, 
without for a moment losing his temper. 

But GoDLOVE S. Orth is dead. That tongue which once by 
its wisdom and eloquence stirreil the souls of those about me here 
to-dav now lies cold and speechless beneath the sod. But in his- 
torv it will speak forever. The seat he so well filled on this floor 
has been taken by another. The various positions he held in the 
organization of this Congress are occupied by other men. The 
daily routine moves forward as when he was among you. Ap- 
parently there is no gap left here by his demise ; but there is a 
vacancy, not only in the ability of this Congress, but in the heart 
of every one who knew him. 

He has crossed the dark river. To the summons has he re- 
sponded, and gone to join the innumerable caravan that moves to 
the mysterious realms. His death was as peaceful as his life. He 
went not like a slave at night, but sustained and soothed by an un- 
faltering trust, wrapped the drapery of his couch about him, and has 
lain down to peaceful dreams. 

The resolutions were then adopted ; and accordingly the House 
adjourned. 
0173 4 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. 



In the Senate, 
December 18, 1882. 

A message from the House of Kepresentatives, by Mr. McPlier- 
son, its Clerk, commuuicated to the Senate the intelligence of the 
death of Godlove S. Orth, late a member of the House from the 
Slate of Indiana, and transmitted the resolutions of the House 
thereon. 

Mr. Harrison. I request the Chair to lay before the Senate the 
message just received from the House of Representatives. 

The Presiding Officer. The Chair now lays before the Sen- 
ate resolutions from the House of Representatives, which will be 
read. 

The Acting Secretary read the House resolutions, as follows : 

Besohed, That the House has heard with sorrow of the death of Hon. God- 
love S. Orth, a Representative from the State of ludiaua. 

Seaolved, That the Clerk coimnunicate these proceedings to the Senate. 

Resolved, That as a token of respect to the memory of the deceased the House 
do now adjourn. 

Mr. Harrison. Mr. President, in view of this announcement 
from the House of Representatives of tlie death of Hon. Godlove 
S. Orth, an event which will bring sorrow to a very wide circle 
of friends both in public and in private life, and out of respect to the 
memory of one who had a very long and a very honorable public 
service, I move that the Senate do now adjourn. 

The President pro tempore. The Chair announces as the com- 
mittee on the part of the Senate to join the House committee to 
attend the funeral ceremonies of Mr. Orth, the Senator from 
Indiana [Mr. Harrison], the Senator from New York [Mr. Lap- 
ham], and the Senator from Wisconsin [Mr. Sawyer]. The Sena- 
tor from Indiana moves that the Senate adjourn. 

The motion was agreed to ; and the Senate adjourned. 
50 



proceedings of tee senate. 51 

In the Senate, 
January 31, 1883. 

A message from the House of Kepresentatives, by Mr. MePher- 
son, its Clerk, transmitted to the Senate the resolutions adopted by 
that body in relation to the death of Godlove S. Orth, late a mem- 
ber of the House from the State of Indiana. 

Mr. Harbison. I ask the Chair to lay the resolutions of the 
House before the Senate. 

The Presiding Officer. The Senator from Indiana asks that 
the resolutions just received from the House of Representatives be 
laid before the Senate. If there be no objection such will be the 
order, and the resolutions will be read. 

The Principal Legislative Clerk read the resolutions, as follows : 

Resolved, That the business of the House be suspended that suitable honors 
may be paid the memory of Godlove S. Okth, late a Representative from In- 
diana. 

Renohed, That in the death of Mr. Orth the country has sustained the loss 
of a safe couuselor, a patriotic citizen, and ,au able and faithful public servant. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect for liis memory the House at the 
couclusiou of these ceremonies shall adjourn. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the Senate. 

Mr. Harrison. I submit resolutions for action. 

The Presiding Officer. The resolutions will be read. 

The resolutions were read, as follows : 

h'esolved, That the Senate has received with profound sorrow the announce- 
ment of the death of Hon. Godlove S. Orth, late a member of the Hou.se of 
Representatives from the State of Indiana, and tenders to the family aud 
kindred of the deceased the assurance of sympathy iu their sad bereavement. 

Ilesolved, That the business of (he Senate be now suspended that opportunity 
may be given for fitting tribute to the memory of the deceased and to hisemi- 
nent public and private virtues, and that as a further mark of respect the 
Senate at the conclusion of such remarks shall adjourn. 



52 LIFE AND CBARACTEB OF GODLOVE S. ORTH. 



Address of Mr. Harrison, of Indiana. 

Mr. President : Godlove S. Orth, of Indiana, a member of 
this Conoress from tlie ninth district of that State, departed this 
life at his home in La Fayette, Indiana, on the 16th day of Decem- 
ber 1882. Mr. Orth was born near Lebanon, Pennsylvania, on 
the 22d day of April, 1817, and was at the time of his death in 
his sixty-sixth year. His parents were of German stock, and he 
always spoke with pride of those homely but sturdy qualities of 
his ancestors whicii made them so conspicuously useful and influ- 
ential as citizens of his native State. He was educated at Pennsyl- 
vania College, Gettysburgh, Pennsylvania, and during his course 
there was a fellow-student of Ex-Governor Conrad Baker, of In- 
diana. The college friendship formed between these two conspicu- 
ous Indianians was maintained unbroken through life. 

After finishing his literary course Mr. Orth devoted himself to 
the study of the law, spending some time in the law office of Hon. 
Thaddens Stevens, for whom he always retained an afiFectionate 
admiration. The influence of Mr. Stevens upon the character of 
his young pupil can be plainly traced in that sympathy with the 
weak and oppressed which marked Mr. Orth's life and speeches. 
Having finished his legal studies, he was admitted to the bar in 
Pennsylvania, and at once removed to La Fayette, Indiana, where 
the remainder of his life was spent. 

He arrived at La Fayette in 1839, and began at once the practice 
of his profession, to which he brought good acquirements, industry, 
energy, and rather conspicuous powers as an advocate. He very 
soon entered into political life, and the practice of his profession 
was necessarily mucii interrupted by the public duties to which he 
was repeatedly called by his neighbors. 

In 1843, only four years after his removal to La Fayette, he was 
elected to the State senate as a Whig. That he served his constit- 
uency with fidelity is evidenced by the fact that he was twice after- 
ward returned by them. 



ADDRESS OF MR. HARRISON, OF INDIANA. 53 

In 1845, when only 28 years of age, he was, after a very spirited 
and protracted contest, chosen president of tlie senate. 

In the year 1848 Mr. Orth was a Presidential elector on the 
Taylor and Fillmore ticket, and took an active and eifective part in 
that exciting campaign. He was a member of the peace congress 
which assembled at Washington in 1861, being one of the five dele- 
gates from the State of Indiana. 

In 18(32 he entered the military service of his country and was 
placed in command of the United States ram Hornet, assigned to 
duty on the Ohio River, where he rendered valuable if not conspicu- 
ous service. 

In the year 1862 Mr. Oeth was first elected to the Congress of 
the United States. That campaign in Indiana will always be a 
memorable one. The first great impulse of patriotic enthusiasm 
had somewhat abated before a succession of disasters to the national 
armies, and a great deal of discontent had begun to manifest itselt 
against the administration of Mr. Lincoln. Of the eleven Congress- 
men to which the State of Indiana was then entitled only four were 
chosen who were in sympathy with the Administration, and of these 
Mr. Orth was one. He was at once brought into contact with the 
most exciting and momentous issues which have ever engaged the 
attention of the national Congress, and was not slow to lift his voice 
in emphatic and courageous utterances in favor of what he believed 
to be tor the honor and perpetuity of the Government. 

He had faith to believe that this seeming ebb in the patriotic reso- 
lution of our people to maintain the Government would be followed 
by a flow which would lift the tide of patriotism and coui-age higher 
than before. His first speech in the House was u\)<m a resolution 
for tlie expulsion of a member from Ohio, who was charged with 
the utterance of treasonable sentiments. Mr. Orth was successively 
elected by the people of his district to the Thirty-eighth, Thirty- 
ninth, Fortieth, and Forty-first Congresses, and to the Forty-third 
Congress from the State at large, having been nominated by the 
State convention of his party. 

He was during the Forty-third Congress chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Foreign Relations, and did some very valuable work for 



54 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GODLOVE S. ORTB. 

the better organization of our consular service. Under his lead a 
systematic organization of the consular offices was arranged and 
the salaries, which before had been irregular, were adjusted upon 
the basis of the responsibilities and duties of the respective offices. 

During his period of service Congress was called upon not only 
to provide for carrying the war to a successful issue, but after it 
had ended to consider the more difficult and delicate subject of re- 
construction. Mr. Orth soon came to be recognized as an influen- 
tial and valuable member of the House. He was not a frequent 
speaker, but was always listened to by his associates with interest 
and attention, and never failed to make interesting contributions of 
suggestion and information to the discussions in which he engaged. 

In 1875 Mr. Orth was appointed by General Grant minister to 
Austria. He went to his post, entered upon his duties, and remained 
in their discharge for about one year. In the spring of 1876 lie 
was unanimously nominated l)y his party as its candidate for gov- 
ernor, being then still at his post in Austria. He resigned his posi- 
tion and came home to enter upon the campaign to which his polit- 
ical friends had called him. Early in that campaign accusations 
were made against him in relation to the Venezuela treaty and 
claims. 

While indignantly denouncing the accusations as slanderous and 
untrue, he was finally led to believe that the interests of his party 
would be subserved by his withdrawal from his candidacy for gov- 
ernor, and in the midst of the campaign, by a letter to the chair- 
man of the State central committee, he announced his withdrawal. 
He was not willing that a possible defeat'should be attril^uted to 
him, and so made this personal sacrifice in the interest of party 
harmony and success. 

In the year 1878 he sought and obtained a nomination from his 
own people, those who knew him best, to the Forty-sixth Congress. 
This nomination was tendered by his friends, and accepted by him, 
as an expression of their continued confidence in his integrity and 
patriotism, and he was elected by a good majority. 

Very soon after taking his seat in this Congress Mr. Okth, rising 



ADDRESS OF MR. HARRISON, OF INDIANA. 55 

to a question of privilege and referring to the accusations wliieli 
Ii;k1 l)een made against him, said: 

Mr. Spi'akcr.'tliiHis the first time in a service of neiirly twelve years that I 
have aslved the attention of the House to a matter iiersoual to myself. The 
explanation which I am about to malie is due to my friends, and especially to 
my immediate eonstituents, who have for so lou*;^ a period favored me with 
their unwavering confidence and support. These friendships and this confi- 
dence are to lue beyond all price, and shall ever be regarded afi among the most 
cherished memories of my life. To some it may seem that this explanation 
shonldnot have been deferred so long, bift it was so deferred in the hope, now 
a reality, that I could make it in this Hall, where it can most properly be made, 
for the reason that here the chief matters causing it had their origin. 



Mr Speaker, would you believe it, in view of theclamor which prevailed 
against me during this investigati<m, that while the " campaign document " 
is full of direct and incidental allusions tome, referring tome time and again 
by name, the report presented to the House mentions my name hnt once or 
twice incidentally, an<l nowhere makes the least charge against me personally, 
or any allusion or insinuation affecting my integrity or calling in question in 
any manner any of my acts in connection with this entire transaction. The 
presentation of this rejjort to the Honse was followed by a repeal of the act of 
February, 187^, Avhich the committee in their report to the House say "was 
wholly unnecessary, as the treaty provides that the awards » • • shall 
be final and conclusive," and the whole matter remitted to the Executive. 

( 'oiitiiiuin^ he said : 

As already mentioned, Indiana is politically a doubtful State. By both 
parties it was then regarded as the pivotal State in the Union. The result of 
her election in October would in all i)robability have been decisive of her 
Presidential vote in November, and that vote with equal probability might 
have decided the Presidential election. 



On mature reliectiou it seemed to me but one course could be adopted, and 
that was to remain no longer in a position when by so remaining I endangered 
the success of my party, to whose principles I am attached, of whose history 
1 am proud, and whose C(mtinued triumphs are paramount to the wishes or 
interests of any single individual. 

Mr. Orth was again elected to the Forty-seventh Congress and 
wa.s renominated by his party for election to the Forty-eighth Con- 
gress. These repeated expressions of confidence by those who had 
known him from his boyhood and htid watched his whole public 



56 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF GODLOFE S. ORTE. 

career show that he was trusted and loved by those who knew him 
best. 

In liis family relations the kindness which he manifested every- 
where became a very tender affection. His home was the abode of 
reciprocal and self-den}-ing service. Those who entered it always 
found an atmosphere of peace. In his public life he was indus- 
trious and faithful to the trusts he had undertaken. As a speaker 
he was earnest in manner, clear in statement, and enforced his views 
witli courage and directness. 

Mr. Orth's health began to show symptoms of decay during 
the protracted session of Congress last summer, though he was not 
thoughtj-either by himself or his friends, to be seriously sick. 
After the close of the session he spent some weeks at Berkeley 
Springs, under the impression that he was suffering from malaria. 
His health, however, continued to grow worse, and he returned to 
his home in Indiana. 

He was a man of great kindness of heart ; his sympathy with 
men was large and wide. He had not only a kindly face and a 
cordial greeting, but was ready and prompt in helpful deeds. He 
took a great interest in young men, and by hopeful counsel and 
substantial aid did much to advance the fortunes of many who 
came to him for help. 

His genial manner gave him ready access to the people in his 
political campaigns, and made him a formidable competitor. Un- 
til the campaign of 1882 he had never been defeated before the 
people, though he had been a candidate many times for State and 
national offices. This defeat was undoubtedly owing in large part 
to the fiict that the disease of which he afterward died had so far 
enfeebled him that it was impossible for him to appear before his 
constituents in debate. Indeed, he was unable to attend but few 
of the public meetings held in his district. 

The excitement of the political campaign, froni the active pur- 
suit of which his health debarred him, must have worn upon his 
spirits. It was a new experience for this veteran to be a looker- 
. on. He was wont to be in the thickest of the tight. His friends 
carried on his campaign for him with great spirit, and tried to 
make up by their efforts for the absence of their leader, but it was 



ADDRESS OF MR. FRYE, OF MAINE. 67 

of no avail ; Mr. Orth .siiffeml liis first defeat before the people, 
and at the same time faced that enemy to whom we must all suc- 
cumb. He found the circle of his intercourse, which had been so 
wide, first limited to his home and then to tiie narrow confines of 
a room into which only those wlio were of liis own liousehold 
(Hiuld enter. 

In this narrow field, narrow as measured by a rule, but wide in 
its interests and affections, the final struggle was enacted. Slowly 
the life currents ebbed ; but while the bodily strength faileil the 
spirit was strong. He drew the members of his own family close 
about him, and when the arms would no longer draw them to the 
brea.st upon which they had trustfully leaned so long he wrapped, 
them in the softer folds of his kindly spirit. 

He entered the dark valley in the fiiith that there was light aud 
life beyond. As its shadows deepened he said : " I know that I 
am in God's hands, not only every hour but every moment, and 
they are good hands; yes, they are good hands." And so this act- 
ive and useful life was ended. A multitude of sorrowing friends 
followed him to the grave; the city with whose life and growth he 
had been so long identified mourned him, and the circle of sorrow 
widened till it touched the margins of the State and nation he had 
served so long and so well. 



Address of Mr Frte, of Maine. 

I am sorry, Mr. President, that I am compelled to bring to this 
occasion no adequate preparation. Perhaps the business of the 
last fortnight might serve to excuse me, yet I do not feel at liberty 
to allow the opportunity to pass without a few words in memory of 
one whom I esteemed as a warm |)ersonal friend. 

Mr. President, our lives here are not easy ; all our ways are not 
ways of pleasantness, nor are all our paths paths of peace. We 
have much labor, many disappointments, many baffled hopes, many 
ambitions that never can be realized, much criticism, just and un- 
just, and sometimes heavy weariness of body and of spirit ; and yet 
there are grand compensations, and one of the purest is the delight- 



58 I'tFE AND CHARACTER OF GODLOVE S. ORTH. 

fill acquaintanceships made and the enduring friendships con- 
tracted. 

It seems to me, sir, that, as a rule, to know a man well is to love 
him well. The Senator from Georgia [Mr. Brown] the other day 
in speaking to the memory of his dead colleague said that in early 
days, when comparatively unknown to each other, they were ene- 
mies, but in later days, serving in the Congress of the United 
States together, knowing each other better, they were warm, ear- 
nest friends. 

Sir, in these halls of Congress it seems to me as nowhere else in 
the world do men learn to know each other well. There are au- 
• tagonisms, I know ; there is ardent, earnest, and sometimes angry 
debate ; there is agreement and disagreement ; and yet these very 
processes only reveal the noblest qualities and the grandest powers 
there are in men. These very antagonisms are but pathways to 
esteem. 

Sir, the North and South came out from that terrible rebellion 
with a new respect for each other which made in the future a closer 
union possible, ay probable, than there evtr existed before. 

But now and then there comes a face which demands at sight 
our confidence and no man dreams of dishonoring the demand. 
Such a face had Mr. Orth. I was serving in the earlier days of 
my public life in the House of Representatives. In those days, 
humiliated by a sense of utter nothingness, I was at one tinie com- 
pelled to address the House in defense of a report I had made. As 
I was taking my seat, humiliated by the chasm between what I 
had hoped and what I had realized, a warm hand grasped mine 
and a rich, mellow voice said to me, " Young man, that was a first- 
rate speech." That hand and that voice were Mr. Orth's. I see 
him now as I saw him then, white-haired, a fresh, ruddy taee, a 
kindly blue eye, a gracious, courteous bearing ; and, sir, it was not 
assumeil on the occasion. It was the impulse of a great, warm 
heart. I sat in the next seat to Mr. Orth for two years and knew 
him intimately for two years succeeding. I never heard him utter 
one harsh, one censorious word about political friend or political 
foe during my whole service. 



ADDRESS OF MS. FETE, OF MAINE. 59 

Sir, Mr. Orth wa.s peculiarly a social man ; he had a mi ad well 
stored by reading, by study, by extensive travel, and by large ex- 
perience in public life. He had a warm and atfectionatc he;irt. He 
had unusual conversational powers, and I seldom liave met a more 
delightful companion than lie. 

He was not a weak mau, I heard his defense, which the Sena- 
tor from his own State lias read here in the presence of the Senate. 
I knew that he was laboring under a sense of grave injustice, of al- 
most insufferable wrong, and he showed his strength and his power 
in his moderation, and tlie House recognized it as a defense per- 
fect, full, and complete. 

Sir, Mr. Okth was a man of strong convictions, of very decided 
opinions. He hated slavery ; he loved his country with an intense 
feeling, and believing that his party was the destroyer of the one 
and the savior of the other he was a zealous, earnest, active Repub- 
lican, but broad enough to be just. 

I was a year ago near his own home, and made inquiry about 
liim. I found, and was not surju'ised to find, that Mr. Orth was 
well beloved in his city and in his State. T found that he was a 
good citizen ; he was a kind, generous neighbor; he was a loving, 
tender father ; lie was a true, affectionate husband. God temper 
this affliction to that widow and those children. 

Mr. President, I say nothing of the public life of this distin- 
guished man, nothing of his achievements, of his successes, or of his 
defeats. The distinguished Senator from his St^te has covered 
that ground thoroughly. I only speak of these homely virtues. 
And, sir, in that silent land whither he has gone may they not lie 
the jewels after all "? In that land " who shall be greatest ? " 

Mr. President, eulogists say that these occiisions should be lessons 
to us, to tlie living. Lessons! Ah, sir, how swiftly they come! 
Hardly time for a recess between. Since I have served in the House 
of Representatives and in the United States Senate, sixty-nine mem- 
bers of the House and twenty-four Senators have joined " the in- 
numerable caravan" and crossed "the covered bridge." Henry 
Wilson, just before he died, said to a friend, " Eighty Senators who 
have served with me have preceded me to the silent land." Said 



60 LIFE AND CHAKACTER OF GODLOVE S. ORTH. 

Hannibal Hamlin, in enlogizing Mr. Wilson, "Since I have served 
ill the United States Senate- and been its presiding officer, one hun- 
dred and thirty-one Senators serving with me have gone beyond 
the veil." Lessons! Ah, sir, we ranst be dull scholars indeed 
if we learn nothing from them. Said a distinguished Senator in 
this place a few days since, in speculating upon the life beyond the 
veil, "Who knows?" 1 know, sir; any man may know. There 
is a chart absolute in its certainty, a guide perfect in His fidelity. 
In these lessons God speaks, and — 

To the dead He sayetli : Arise ! 
To the living : Follow me ! 
And that voice still soundeth ou 
From the eentnrles that are gone, 
To the centuries that shall he 1 



Address of Mr. Voorhees, of Indiana. 

Mr. President : It was a custom of former ages for a man's 
nearest kindred to speak his eulogium when dead. It is not so 
now. His associates in the affairs of church or state sit in judg- 
ment ou his memory. The member of the bar whose pleadings 
and briefs are over is spoken of by those with whom he contended ; 
the memory of the disciple of the church who falls to rest is cared 
for by one who shared his life and his belief; and .so here in the 
Halls of Congress we commemorate each other as we jiass away. 

I knew Mr. Orth from the earliest years of my manhood. He 
belonged to a strong, vigorous, energetic cUiss of men. He took a 
prominent rank in the ])i)litics of Indiana wiiile yet a young man. 
There was a warmth and eutliusiasiii in his nature which uc<'oiii- 
plished much in his public career. He was a good neighbor and 
an obliging friend. He stood well with those who knew him 
best. He always outran the strength of his party in his own 
home. No better evidence of a well-s])ent life can any man have 
than this. 

Mr. Orth served in the legislature of Indiana, many years in 
Congress, and .some time abroad in the foreign service. He dis- 



ADDRESS OF MR. VnORREES, OF INDIANA. 61 

charged all his duties in every station with ability. He never fell 
short of the expectations of his friends. Mr. Orth was a parti- 
san, but of a nature st> genial and kind that his warm personal 
friendships embraced men of all parties. 

I might dwell upon the associates with whom he entered life in 
Indiana, wliose influence he experienced, and nearly all of whom 
have |)receded him to tiie grave ; but the time and the occasion do 
not permit. He sleeps at the beantifid city of La Fayette, with a 
strong i)and of comrades who iiave srone before him. Some dav 
the pen of the historian and tlie tongue of tlie orator will embalm 
the names of the pioneer thinkers and workers of the Wabash 
Valley, and among them will be found that of Godlove S. Orth. 
He was one of a brilliant and intellectual fraternity, a fraternity 
at tiie bar and in politics which has left an enduring influence 
on tlie history of the State of his adoption. 

I saw Mr. Orth not long before ids death. He was aware of 
his failing powers, but spoke of the future, whatever it had in 
store, with cheerfulness and courage. Those who stood beside him 
at the last moment have infoi'med me that his veiy last expression 
was one of happiness. Peace to his memory ! In the grave all 
divisions are buried, and over his grave his friends and those who 
loved him will mourn, while the days and the weeks and the years 

go by. 

Sir, in recognition of tiie sad event which we this day commemo- 
rate, I move the adoption of the resolutions. 

The Presiding Officer. The que,stion is on the resolutions. 
The resolutions were agreed to unanimously ; and the Senate. 
adjourned. 




^- v^i^Vv■^SW\\^^^vfl»f>^^^^-; «\\\»\'' 



